PROMINENT AND 
PROGRESSIVE AMERICANS 



AN 
ENCYCLOPvCDIA OF CONTEMPORANEOUS 

BIOGRAPHY 



COMPILED BY MITCHELL C. HARRISON 



VOLUME I 



t 



NEW YORK TRIBUNE 

1902 



'.■ot: iwess, 

' ti Cu«^ RcOsivED 

^^f^. sd too? 

CLASe cv XXa No. 
COPY B. 



Copyright, 1902, by 
The TRIBtTNE Associatiok 



The DeVinne Prim 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Frederick Thompson Adams 1 

John Gieaud Agar 3 

Charles Henry Aldrich 5 

Russell Alexander Alger 7 

Samuel Waters Allerton 10 

Daniel Fuller Appleton 15 

John Jacob Astor 17 

Benjamin Franklin Ayer 23 

Henry Clinton Backus 25 

William T. Baker 29 

Joseph Clark Baldwin 32 

John Rarick Bennett 34 

Samuel Austin Besson 36 

H. S. Black 38 

Frank Stuart Bond 40 

Matthew Chaloner Durpee Borden 42 

Thomas Murphy Boyd 44 

Alonzo Norman Burbank 46 

Patrick Calhoun 48 

Arthur John Caton 53 

Benjamin Pierce Cheney 55 

Richard Floyd Clarke 58 

Isaac Hallowell Clothier 60 

Samuel Pomeroy Colt 65 

Russell Hermann Conwell 67 

Arthur Coppell 70 

Charles Counselman 72 

Thomas Cruse 74 

John Cudahy '. 77 

Marcus Daly 79 

Chauncey Mitchell Depew 82 

Guy- Phelps Dodge 85 

Thomas Dolan 87 

LoREN NoxoN Downs 97 

Anthony Joseph Drexel 99 

Harrison Irwin Drummond 102 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

John Fairfield Dbyden 105 

HiPOLITO DUMOIS 107 

Charles Warren Fairbanks 109 

Frederick Tysoe Fearey Ill 

John Scott Ferguson 113 

Lucius George Fisher 115 

Charles Fleischmann 118 

Julius Fleischmann 121 

Charles Newell Fowler 124 

Joseph M. Gazzam 126 

WiLLiAJi Warren Gibbs 129 

Charles Pierrepont Henry Gilbert 132 

Lester O. Goddard 134 

George J. Gould 136 

George R. Gray 138 

William Cornell Greene 140 

Clement Acton Griscom 143 

James Ben Ali Haggin 146 

Oliver Harriman, Jr 150 

Norman Waite Harris 152 

Lynde Harrison 154 

Henry J. Heinz 158 

Samuel Alexander Henszey IGl 

George B. Hill 164 

Thomas Griswold Hillhouse 166 

Edward Hines 168 

William Butler Hornblower 170 

Harry L. Horton 172 

CoLLis Potter Huntington 174 

Henry Edwards Huntington 176 

Lloyd Lowndes Jackson 179 

Joseph Jefferson 181 

Frederic Beach Jennings 183 

John P. Jones 185 

Otto Herman Kahn 187 

John Kean 189 

James Robert Keene 191 

Seneca D. Kimbabk 194 

John Henry Kirby 196 

Alvin William Krech 199 

John Brooks Leavitt 201 

Levi Zeigler Leitek 203 

Robert Packer Linderman 206 

Frank G. Logan 209 

Leonor Fresnel Loree 211 

Frank Orren Lowden 213 

Arthur Fuller Luke 215 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

John Augustine McCall 217 

John James McCook 220 

Flavel McGee 222 

John Edward Marsh 225 

Alonzo Clark Mather 228 

Darius Ogden Mills 230 

David H. Moffat 236 

James Hobart Moore 241 

William H. Moore 243 

John Pierpont Morgan 246 

Franklln Murphy 249 

Samuel Newhouse 251 

Jacob Van Vechten Olcott 253 

James Edwards Pepper 255 

Lafayette Edward Pike 258 

Robert Pitcaibn 260 

Andrew Woodbury Preston 262 

Matthew Stanley Quay 264 

Anton Adolph Raven 266 

Norman Bruce Ream 268 

James Hay Reed 271 

Daniel Gray Reid 273 

John Jackson Riker 276 

John Lawrence Riker 278 

Percival Roberts, Jr 281 

Frederick Leo Rodewald 283 

Jordan Jackson Rollins 285 

Theodore Roosevelt 287 

Elihu Root 290 

Peter Frederick Rothermel. Jr 293 

William Salomon 295 

KiCKHAM SCANLAN 298 

Charles T. Schoen 300 

Charles M. Schwab 302 

Isaac Newton Seligman 304 

Nicholas Senn 309 

Dewitt Smith 311 

John C. Spooner 313 

John Diedrich Spreckels 316 

Charles Albert Stadler 319 

James Stillman 321 

Arthur Edward Stilwell 324 

Joseph Suydam Stout 326 

William Lewis Stow 328 

Frank Knight Sturgis 330 

Talbot J. Taylor 332 

George Kramer Thompson 334 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Francis J. Torrance 330 

James J. Townsend 338 

George Arthur Treadwell 340 

William H. Tri.tesdale 343 

Charles Harrison Tweed 345 

Frederick D. Underwood 347 

Frederic Williaivi Upham 350 

Harry Jacques Verner 352 

Herbert Harold Vreeland 354 

Felix M. Warburg 357 

Leslie D. Ward 360 

William Drew Washburn 362 

James Montaudevert Waterbury 365 

William Seward Webb 367 

Henri P. Wertheim 370 

Stanford White • 372 

William Collins Whitney 374 

Cassius Milton Wicker 377 

Isaiah Cole Young 380 

WiLLLiM Ziegler 382 



FREDERICK THOMPSON ADAMS 



FREDERICK THOMPSON ADAMS, who, besides being a 
liighl.y successful financier, is one of the most enthusiastic 
and skilful yachtsmen, comes from families of bankers. His 
maternal grandfather was a banker Avho, with his two sons, 
Frederick T. and Samuel C. Thompson, founded the First Na- 
tional Bank and subsequently also the Chase National Bank of 
New York. His father went to California among the "forty- 
niners," but a few years later came back to Chicago and engaged 
in the banking business, which he conducted with great success 
until 1866, when, having amassed a fortune, he retired and went 
to live at his old family home at Coxsackie, New York. 

The subject of this sketch is the son of Francis G. Adams and 
Eudora L. (Thompson) Adams, and was born to them in Chi- 
cago in April, 1854. He received a good education, but was from 
early bo.yhood so strongly attracted to the sea that instead of 
going into business he sailed, at the age of nineteen years, on the 
clipper ship St. Charles for a voyage around the Horn. Arriv- 
ing at San Francisco, he sailed again on various ships on the 
Pacific, and then, coming back to New York, passed an examina- 
tion as midshipman in the service of the Pacific Mail Steamship 
Company. He was assigned to duty on the City of Peking, just 
built, and went on her from New York to San Francisco by way 
of the Strait of Magellan. This voyage was a memorable one, 
since the ship lost two blades of her propeller on the way, and 
had to make the latter part of the rmi in a crippled condition, 
thus being at sea from September, 1874, to February, 1875. Mr. 
Adams then went across the Pacific on that ship and returned, 
after which he resigned his place on her and repaired to Chi- 

1 



2 FKEDEBICK THOMPSON ADAMS 

cago. Thence he went to the mining regions, and finally, in 
1880, came to New York. 

In New York Mr. Adams established a Western farm and 
mortgage business, and became a member of the Unlisted Secur- 
ities Board. In that he prospered, and presently he joined the 
New York Mining Exchange, and went with it into the Con- 
solidated Exchange. In 1884 he became a director of the Chase 
National Bank, having purchased a stock interest in it, and 
served initil 1886, when he negotiated the sale of that bank to 
the syndicate now controlling it. He bought a seat in the New 
York Stock Exchange in 1886, and in 1889 formed the finn of 
F. T. Adams & Co., with W. E. Pearl as his partner. In addi- 
tion to the Stock Exchange, he is a member of the Produce 
Exchange, the Cotton Exchange, and the Coffee Exchange of 
New York. 

Mr. Adams 's fondness f.ov the sea naturally led him to take to 
yachting as his favorite sport, and in that he has attamed suc- 
cess and great distinction As soon as he could afford it he 
bought a yacht, his first important vessel being the Esperite. 
Later he joined John G. Moore in buying the Sachem, one of 
the fastest and most famous schooners ever built. The Sachem 
won the prized Goelet Cup twice, besides innumerable other 
races. Mr. Adams has also hunself given many trophies, and 
has in many ways greatly promoted the fine sport of yachting. 
He was formerly commodore of the Atlantic Yacht Club, one 
of the crack organizations of New York, and is now commodore 
of the Larchmont Yacht Clulj. He is still a member of the 
Atlantic Yacht Clul>, and also of the New York, Columljia, Man- 
hasset Bay, and Bridgeport Yacht Clubs. His other affiliations 
include meml)ershi]) in the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
of New York and the New York, Manhattan, Automobile, 
Lambs, Sulnirban Riding and Driving, and New York Athletic 
clubs of New York. 

Mr. Adams was married in New York, in October, 1886, to 
Miss Witherbee of Boston, Massachusetts. He makes his home 
in New York, but in summer spends most of his time in cruis- 
ing on his yacht on Long Island Sound and elsewhere. 




ytr^4i 



Jj^ 



JOHN GIRAUD AGAR 

JOHN GIRAUD AGAR is of Southern birth and early train- 
ing. His mother, whose maiden name was Theresa Price, 
was a native of Louisville, Kentucky, and a descendant of some 
of the first settlers of that State. Mr. Agar's father, William 
Agar, was descended from one of the most ancient families of 
Coimty Carlow, Ireland, and in early life settled in New Or- 
leans, Louisiana, where he became one of the leaders of the mer- 
cantile community. John G. Agar was born in New Orleans on 
Jmie 3, 1856. He received his early education from his parents 
and from private tutors at home. After the Civil War he was 
sent, in 1869, to the prej^aratory. department of Georgetown 
University, in the District of Cohunbia. Thence he entered the 
University proper, and in 1876 he was graduated from it with 
the degree of A.B. For the next two years he was a student in 
the Roman Catholic University at Kensington, London, Eng- 
land, devoting himself largely to biology and mental and moral 
philosophy. Two years at the law school of Columbia College, 
New York, followed, giving him the degree of LL.B. and also 
admission to the bar. Georgetown University gave him the 
degree of A.M. in 1888, and that of Ph. D. in 1889. 

The bent of Mr. Agar's inclination was unmistakably toward 
the legal profession, and toward jDolitics. He was admitted to 
the bar in 1880, and a j^ear later was appointed assistant United 
States district-attorney for the Southern District of New York. 
"^Phis appointment was the more notable tribute to his ability for 
the reason that he was a Democrat, while the President who ap- 
pointed him— Garfield— was a Republican. After about a year 
in that office Mr. Agar resigned it, and became the head of the 



4 JOHN GIRAUD AGAR 

law firm of Agar, Ely & Fulton. With that finn he has since 
been identified, and in it he has been eminently successful. 

His taste for politics led Mr. Agar to particijjate prominently 
in the movement for reform of the local administration in New 
York city. He identified himself with the People's Municipal 
League, and in the electoral campaign of 1891 was chairman 
of its cami^aigu committee, and had charge of organizing it in 
the various assembly districts of the city. It was he who caused 
all candidates for office on the tickets of the League to be pledged 
to secure, if possiljle, the adoption of the so-called Australian, 
or "blanket-ballot," system of voting. Mr. Agar was one of 
the leaders in the movement for the creation of a State naval 
militia, and on September 2, 1891, he was appointed by Gov- 
ernor Hill a lieutenant and paymaster of that body. He is now 
a judge-advocate, with the rank of lieutenant-connnander. 

Mr. Agar was appointed a member of the Board of Education 
of New York city by Mayor Strong, on October 8, 1896. In that 
place he was a strong advocate of reformed and improved meth- 
ods of school administration, especially of keeping politics out 
of school affairs, of maintaining a high standard of scholarship 
among teachers, and of governing appointments and promotions 
by the merit system. When the Van Wyck administration came 
into office Mr. Agar found antagonistic influences at work. On 
February 2, 1899, he felt constrained to address a letter to tlie 
Mayor, in answer to some strictures of the latter upon the 
board; and on October 3, 1899, he resigned from the board, 
along with several other of its best members, because he f oimd 
it no longer possi])le to do satisfactory work under the general 
mimieipal administration. 

Mr. Agar is a member of a number of clubs and other organ- 
izations. He was married on February 18, 1892, to Miss Agnes 
Louise MacDonough, who has borne him four children: John 
Giraud, William Mac^Donough, Herbert S.^mnott, and Kather- 
ine Margaret, of whom the last named died in March, 1902. 




I '^ 




CHARLES HENRY ALDRICH 

THE family of Aldrich, from which the subject of this sketch 
is descended on the paternal side, is of English origin, but 
lias been settled in this country for many years. The same may 
be said of the Sherwood family, comprising the maternal ances- 
tors of Mr. Aldrich. In the last generation the two families 
were united by the marriage of Hamilton Metealf Aldrich and 
Harriet Sherwood. Mr. Aldrich was a farmer, living in La 
Grange County, Indiana, and there, on August 26, 1850, Charles 
Henry Aldrich was born. 

The boy spent his early years upon the farm, but enjoyed ex- 
tended educational advantages, which he improved to the best 
purpose. He at first attended the local common school. Next 
he pursued a course at Orland Seminary, in Steuben County, 
Indiana. Thence he went to Ann Arbor, Michigan, and was 
graduated from the High School there in 1871, with an education 
which fitted him to enter college. He thereupon entered the 
regular classical course of the LTniversity of Michigan, and was 
duly graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1875. 
Years later, in 1893, his Alma Mater conferred upon him the 
advanced degree of Master of Arts. 

During his university course Mr. Aldrich decided to adopt the 
law as his profession, and upon graduation at once applied him- 
self to special studies with that end in view. He made rapid 
progress, so that by May, 1876, he was able to oj^en an office 
and begin practice at Fort Wayne, Indiana. He met with grati- 
fying success, and remained in practice at Fort Wayne for 
almost ten years, namely, until April, 1886. At that time he 
decided to seek a more extended field of operations, and accord- 
ingly removed to Chicago, Illinois. He has pursued his pro- 

5 



b CHARLES HENRY ALDRICH 

fessiou in the latter city with steadily increasing success and 
prestige down to the present time, with the exception of the two 
years 1892-93, when he was at Washington, D. C, filhng the 
important office of Solicitor-General of the United States. The 
latter is the only political office he has held. In it he was, of 
course, the representative of the Federal Government in numer- 
ous cases, including some of fii*st-rate importance. 

Since his retirement from the office of Solicitor-General Mr. 
Aldrich has continued his private legal practice in Chicago and 
elsewhere, an increasing proportion of it being in the various 
United States courts both in Chicago and in Washington. It 
will be recalled that during the winter of 1900-01 Mr. Aldrich 
was retained as counsel in one of the cases involving the status 
of Poi'to Ricans as citizens of the United States or otherwise, 
and the general relationship of that island to this country, and 
he made thereon one of the most notable arguments against the 
government before the Supreme Court of the United States. 

Mr. Aldrich's professional work has brought him into contact 
and connection with various corporations and business enter- 
prises, to which he has given efficient legal service. He has not, 
however, permitted any other pursuits to draw him away from 
strict attention to the work of his chosen profession. 

He is a member of the Union League Club of Chicago, and of 
the Country Club of Evanston, Illinois. He was married on 
October 13, 1875, to Miss Helen U. Roberts of Steuben County, 
Indiana, who has borne him three children : Charles Roberts 
Aldrich, Marian L. Aldrich, and Helen B. Aldrich. 




RUSSELL ALEXANDER ALGER 

RUSSELL ALGER of Litehfiekl County, Connecticut, re- 
j moved mth his widowed mother and her four other chil- 
dren to the Western Reserve in Ohio, in the early twenties. In 
1832 he married, in Ohio, Caroline Moulton, who was born at Ran- 
dolph, Vermont, and who also had removed, with her family, to 
the Western Reserve, in the early twenties. They lived for a 
time in a log cabin at Lafayette, Medina County, Ohio, where, on 
February 27, 1836, Russell Alexander Alger was born. The 
father died in 1848 ; the mother also died the same year. There 
were four children left of the family. The eldest, a daughter, 
died in 1851, leaving Russell, the second child, to be the head of 
the family and to care for his little brother and sister. 

The boy secured homes for the other two children in neigh- 
bors' famihes, and himself went to hve with an uncle, who gave 
him lodging, board, and clothes, and three months' schooling a 
year, in retiu-n for his work upon the fami. Two years later he 
became a farm-hand at three dollars a month, and remained at 
such work imtil he was twenty years old, l)y which time he was 
getting fifteen dollars a month. Meantime he attended the 
Richfield Academy for five winters, and taught school for two 
winters. He also contributed much toward the maintenance 
and education of his brother and sister. 

In 1857 Mr. Alger studied law at Akron, Ohio, and two years 
later was admitted to the bar. A year more was spent in legal 
study and hard work at Cleveland, and then his health broke 
down. He went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and entered the 
lumber business with a friend. Disaster marked his first efforts, 
the failure of a firm in Chicago destroying his business and leav- 
ing him heavily in debt. 



8 RUSSELL ALEXANDER ALGER 

Then came the Civil War. Oii August 19, 1861, he enlisted in 
the Second Michigan Cavalry, and went to the front as captain. 
In May, 1862, during. the siege .of Corinth, his regiment was with- 
out a colonel. The colonelcy was offered to Captain Alger, who 
declined it on the score of inexperience, and it was subsequently 
given to Captain Philip H. Sheridan. A few weeks later was 
fought the battle of Booneville, Mississippi, in which Sheridan 
was attacked l)y Greneral Chalmers with a force of four or five 
thousand men. Colonel Sheridan having only between eight and 
nine hundred men fit for duty. Sheridan went to Captain Alger, 
who was ill in liis tent, and asked him if he was fit for duty. 
Captain Alger said he was, and taking only ninety-two men, he 
was ordered to make a detom' to the I'ear of Chalmers's force, 
where was found a reserve of at least two thousand men. This 
Captain Alger did, cutting his way through, and losing heavily 
of his command. At the appointed hour, Sheridan made a fu- 
rious attack in front, and, as he writes himself in his memoirs, " the 
attack upon Chalmers's rear caused a stampede of the entire force, 
and the victory was won." In the meantime Captain Alger was 
dismounted, disabled, taken prisoner, and escaped. The next 
day he was recommended for promotion to the rank of major. 
On October 16, 1862, he was commissioned lieiitenant-colonel, 
and in June, 1863, colonel, to date fi'om February 28, 1863. His 
regiment was in C-uster's Brigade in the Army of the Potomac, 
and did splendid work at Gettysburg. He was wounded at 
Boonesborough, Maryland, on July 2, 1863, served with Sheri- 
dan in the Wilderness, was in front of Petersburg and in the 
Shenandoah Valley in 1861, and won especial distinction at 
Trevilian Station on June 11, 1861, and upon other fields, for 
which he was twice recommended by Greneral Sheridan and 
other general officers for promotion for gallantry. He was hon- 
orably mustered out in September, 1861, and in June, 1865, was 
brevetted brigadier- and major-general of volunteers for dis- 
tinguished services. 

In 1866 he settled at Detroit, as a partner in the lumber firm 
of Moore, Alger & Co., and in time became the head of the firm 
of R. A. Alger & Co. In 1881 the business was incorporated 
under the name of Alger, Smith & Co., and it has since put forth 
a branch known as the Manistique Lumbering Company, of both 



KUSSELL ALEXANDER ALGEE 9 

of which General Alger is president. He is a stockholder and 
du'ector of the State Savings Bank of Detroit, the chief owner 
of the Volunteer Iron Mine in Marquette County, a director of 
the United States Express Company, and the owner of extensive 
timber lands in various parts of the United States and Canada. 

General Alger has long been prominent in polities as a Repub- 
Ucan. He was a delegate to the National Republican Conven- 
tion of 1884, and in the same year was elected Governor of 
Michigan. In 1888 he was a candidate for the Presidential nom- 
ination at the Republican Convention, and received one hundred 
and forty-three votes, his own State, Michigan, voting solidly 
for him until the end. It was on that occasion that the cry, 
"What 's the matter with Alger f He's all right!" was first 
heard, and added a new phrase to the popular speech. He was 
that year elected a Presidental elector. On March 4, 1897, he 
entered President McKinley's Cabinet, as Secretary of War. 
In that office he organized, equipped, and transported to the 
field the great volunteer ai'my in the Spanish-American War, 
and it may well be recorded that this achievement, considering 
time, distance, and general conditions, was without a jiarallel in 
the history of wars. He resigned his office on August 1, 1899, 
and has since devoted his attention to his private interests. 

He was married, on April 2, 1861, to Miss Annette H. Henry, 
daughter of William Gilmore Henry and Huldana Squier Henry 
of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Nine children have been born to 
them, of whom five ai"e now li'V'ing. These are as follows : 
Caroline, now the wife of Henry Dusenbury Sheldon of Detroit; 
Fay, wife of Wilham Elder Bailey of Thorndale, Pennsylvania ; 
Frances, wife of Charles Burrall Pike of Chicago ; Russell Alex- 
ander, Jr., who married Miss Marion Jarves, daughter of Deming 
Jarves of Detroit ; and Frederick Moulton, who was graduated 
at Harvard University in the class of 1899. 

General Alger was first department commander of the Michigan 
Grand Army of the Republic, and elected commander-in-chief of 
the Grand Army of the Republic, in August, 1889, and filled that 
office one year. He is also a member of the military order of the 
Loyal Legion, of which he has been depai-tment commander, a 
son of the American Revolution, and a member of the Union 
League Club and the Ohio Society of New York. 



SAMUEL WATERS ALLERTON 

IN probably no American city have there been more striking 
examples of what are called self-made men than in the great 
Western metropohs of Chicago. The phenomenal growth of 
that city has afforded opportunities nowhere else surpassed for 
the rise of men from humble beginnings to wealth and influence 
through sheer personal merit. Among such men, who have not 
only been, in the common acceptation of the term, self-made, 
but who have reflected greatest credit upon themselves as self- 
makers, there is to-day probably no more noteworthy figm'c than 
that of the subject of the present biography, Samuel Waters 
Allerton, who has long been a highly respected and particularly 
impressive figure in the business w^orld of Chicago and New 
York, and whose career has been as characteristic of his time 
and surroundings as that of any of the great founders of wealthy 
American families. In common with most of them, he began 
life on a farm, where he learned the simple code of n;ral man- 
hood, frugality, industry, and stern honesty. 

Samuel Waters Allerton was born in Amenia, Dutchess 
County, New York, on May 26, 1828, being the youngest of nine 
children. He attended the public school of his native village un- 
til he was twelve years of age, when his scholastic education was 
suspended, and he began working for his living. In 1842 the Al- 
lerton family removed to a rented farm in Yates County, New 
York. Samuel there worked under his father until by the united 
efforts of the family enough money was accumulated to pm-chase 
a farm in the neighboring county of Wayne. Then Samuel and 
his brother Henry rented a farm together, made money on their 
venture, and bought a $1500 place, paying $1500 in cash. At 
the end of three years the balance was paid, and the brothers 

10 



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A, * 



j^^^^ y?Ci--tLu..z^ 



SAMUEL WATERS ALLEETON 11 

had money in the bank besides. Samuel, meanwhile, had been 
trading in live stock in a small way, and at length began to 
approach the conviction that his futiu-e lay not in raising cattle 
on a farm, but in dealing in them in city markets. Eeturning 
to the farm one day from a visit to New York city and Albany, 
he went to his brother and proposed a division of the joint capi- 
tal, Henry to take the $4500 farm, and himself the $3000 in 
money which they had saved. The more cautious and less am- 
bitious Hemy pointed out to Samuel that whoever kept the 
farm had a certainty, and therefore the better bargain, but he 
finally consented to the exchange, and the brothers parted with 
all mutual good wishes. 

The fu'st hundred cattle which Samuel Allerton bought were 
sold on the spot on which the Fifth Avenue Bank in New York 
city now stands. They fetched the lowest price that the market 
had known in ten years, and the young trader lost seven hunth-ed 
dollars on the speculation. He was staggered at first by the 
calamity, for the money he had invested had come slowly and 
represented years of hard and constant labor. He summoned 
his courage, however, and resolved to try at least once more 
before going back to farming. Out in Erie County, New York, the 
farmers' wives had held a series of indignation meetings which 
had resulted in the burning of a railroad bridge, because the 
trains had ceased to stop for dinner at that particular station. 
It was an opportune occurrence for young Allerton. Cattle were 
unloaded from the blocked trains and driven overland to Dun- 
dirk, where Samuel bought a bunch of a hundred head, and 
rushed them through to New York, where a beef famine was 
threatened, and he sold them at a profit of three thousand 
dollars. 

He went West after this, and spent a year or two in Illinois, 
feeding and raising cattle. The weak condition of the national 
finances at this period was the cause of many sudden bank 
failures. One of these precipitated a local panic which swept 
away every dollar he had accumulated. Again he rallied from 
his loss, and mth his unfaihng courage started over again on 
a borrowed capital of five thousand dollars. He had carefully 
studied the Western situation, and with fine prescience decided 
that the future gTeat city and commercial center of the middle 



12 SAMUEL WATERS ALLERTON 

west was to be Chicago. In that place, therefore, he estaWished 
himself, and began buying live stock. There was no general 
market in Chicago at that time, except for a few months in 
the winter, shippers, as a rule, preferring to take their stock 
through to the Eastern markets. 

Mr. Allerton kept a close watch upon the progress of current 
events, ready to seize the first opportunity for buying on a large 
scale. It came at last, dming a great break in the market, but 
it came at a time when the ambitious yoinig speculator had no 
ready money to invest. He had formed no banking connections 
in Chicago, and was also unknown in business circles. He went 
to one of his few acquaintances, a Mr. Tobey, with the request 
that he be identified at that gentleman's bank. Mr. Tobey 
consented to oblige him, but very wisely declined to be respon- 
sible beyond the mei'e introduction. They went to the 
George Smith Bank, an institution which issued Greorgia money 
and furnished the currency for the Northwest. Mr. Allerton's 
proposition to the cashier was simple : " If I pay for three 
telegrams, one to Halstead, Chamberlain & Co., asking if 
they will honor my draft, one to your correspondent, asking 
if Halstead, Chamberlain & Co. are all right, and one to my 
bank, asking if I am all right, may I come in to-morrow and sell 
you a sight draff?" The reply was, "Yes." Allerton went 
du'ectly to the stock-yards, bought every hog in the market, and 
next morning presented to the astounded cashier a draft for 
eighty thousand dollars. The bank declined to accept it, in spite 
of its promise and notwithstanding the fact that the three 
telegrams had been favorably replied to. The cashier had not 
supposed that his new customer woidd call for more than five 
thousand dollars, and he was not prepared to discount a larger 
draft on telegrams. Mr. Allerton walked out of the building 
feeling that his credit was ruined and his future hopeless. Quite 
by accident, he encountered an old acquaintance from Syi'acuse, 
New York, to whom he confided his emergenc.y. The New York 
man took him to the Aiken and Norton Bank, where they con- 
sented to cash the eighty-thousand-dollar draft at a discount of 
one per cent. This was Allerton's first operation ; it was suc- 
cessful, and it made him at once a rich man and a conspicuous 
figure in the market. 



SAMUEL WATEBS ALLERTON 13 

The Civil War then came, and with it the pressing need of a 
national cuiTency. Congress passed the National Bank Act, 
issuing government bonds to insure the circulation of the money, 
hut national banks were slow in starting. Mr. AUerton urged 
upon his old friends Aiken and Norton the project of starting one, 
but they hesitated, fearing that they would be unable to dispose 
of the bank stock. Mr. AUerton offered to take ten thousand dol- 
lars himself, and promised to find five other men who would take 
equal amounts. In this way was started the First National 
Bank of Chicago, with Samuel AUerton as its progenitor. To his 
efforts is largely due the organization of the Union Stock Yards 
in Chicago. He wrote the first letter ever published on the 
subject, to the Chicago " Tribune," and agitated the idea con- 
stantly, untU it became popular, and the greatest stock-market in 
the world was built. 

Mr. AUerton has never outgrown his love for farming. He 
has been buying land and improving it during his whole career, 
and he is now probably the largest practical farmer in the 
country. 

He has forty thousand acres of land under cultivation, and 
has ranches and farming interests in Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, 
lUinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York. He con- 
tinues to be active in the hve-stock trade, and ships cattle and 
other stock to the Eastern markets and to England. He has 
interests in street raikoads and in mines. 

H's early political opinions were received from Horace Greeley 
and Henry Clay, and his later af&Uation was with the Republi- 
can party. He is a firm behever in a pi'otective tariff, and in a 
system of sound national currency on the gold basis. He has 
Uved through many panics, and has seen many men of thrift 
and abihty destroyed, in character as well as financially, by 
losing the results of years of industry. He realizes, therefore, 
the necessity of a sound financial basis. The only public office 
he ever aspired to was that of Mayor of Chicago. He accepted 
the nomination on an independent ticket, giving no pledges 
except to do his duty as a good citizen. He intended, however, 
to carry the civil-service reform system into effect, and also to 
employ the best engineers in the cotmtry to do away with the 
smoke nuisance and to settle other vexed questions of sanitation 



14 SAMUEL WATEBS ALLEKTON 

in the city. He earned the North Side, the most intelhgent 
wards, but was defeated by a clever pohtical coup by the Carter 
Harrison forces, by means of which the Democratic candidate 
for Mayor and most of the Repubhean aldermen were elected. 

Mr. Allerton was married in early life to Pamilla W. Thomp- 
son. Some years after her death he married Agues C. Thompson, 
a younger sister of his first wife. He has two children : a son, 
Robert Allerton, and a daughter, Kate R. Allerton, who is the 
wife of Hugo R. Johnson. 










c^-tyu 



DANIEL FULLER APPLETON 



AMONG the iuuunierable New Englauder.s who have made 
-rA_ New York their home aud have contrihuted to its great- 
ness in all worthy walks of life, a conspicuous iigure is that of 
Daniel Fuller Apjiletou, merchant and manufacturer. He was 
horn in Marhlehead, Massachusetts, on Janiiary 31, 1826, the 
son of General James Appleton and Sarah (Fuller) Appleton. 
His earliest ancestor in this country was Samuel Appleton, who 
came from England and settled in 1636 at Ipswich, Massachu- 
setts, on land which has ever since remained in the possession 
of the family and which now forms the summer home of the 
svibject of this sketch. From Samuel Appleton were descended 
all in New England who have borne that name, including many 
men distinguished in all professions, among them merchants, 
lawyers, jurists, and educators. General James Appleton, father 
of Daniel F. Appleton, removed fi*om Marhlehead to Portland, 
Maine, in 1833, and was a leader of the old Liberty party, the 
predecessor of the Republican party, and in the antislavery 
and temperance movements. He was the first man in America 
to propose legislative prohibition of the liquor traffic, which he 
did in 1831 in a petition to the Massachusetts Legislature, and 
again in 1837 in a report to the Maine Legislature, of which he 
was a member. He was several times the Liberty party's 
candidate for governor of Maine. 

Daniel Fuller Appleton was well educated in his father's 
home and in the public schools of Maine. Then, at the age of 
twenty-one, he left home for the gi'eat metropolis, to make his 
own way in the world. He had no capital, and no friends in 
New York who could assist him, but he soon got employment. 
In a few months the firm by which he was engaged went out of 



15 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR 



THERE is probably no name in America more thoroughly 
identified in the popular mind — and rightly so — with the 
possession and intelligent use of great wealth than that of Astor, 
For four generations the family which bears it has been fore- 
most among the rich families of New York, not only in size of 
fortune, but in generous public spmt and in all those elements 
that make for permanence and true worth of fame. The build- 
ing ixj) of a great fortune, the estabhshment of a vast business, 
the giving of a name to important places and institutions, the 
liberal endowment of libraries, asylums, hospitals, churches, 
schools, and what not, the administration on a peculiarly gener- 
ous system of a large landed estate in the heart of the metropolis 
— these are some of the titles of the Astor family to remembrance. 
It was a John Jacob Astor who founded the family in this 
country and made it great. In each generation since, that name 
has been preserved, and to-day is borne by its fourth holder. 
The present John Jacob Astor is the son of Wilham Astor, who 
was the son of William B. Astor, who was the son of the fu*st 
John Jacob Astor. He is also descended from Oloff Stevenson 
Van Cortlandt, who was the last Dutch Burgomaster of New 
Amsterdam before the British took it and made it New York ; 
from Colonel John Armstrong, one of the heroes of the French 
and Indian War ; and from Robert Livingston, who received by 
royal grant the famous Livingston Manor, comprising a large 
part of Columbia and Dutchess counties. New York. He was 
bom at his father's estate of Ferncliff, near Rhinebeck, on the 
Hudson, on July 13, 1864, and was educated at St. Paul's School, 
Concord, New Hampshire, and Harvard University. He was 
graduated at Harvard in the scientific class of 1888, and then 

17 



18 JOHN JACOB ASTOR 

spent some time in travel and study abroad. He had already 
made extended tours through the United States, from New 
England to the Pacific coast. His subsequent travels have 
taken him into nearly every European and South American 
country, and he has not been content to follow merely the 
ordinary route of travel, but has made for himself new and 
interesting itineraries. 

Upon his retmii to his native land Mr. Astor entered upon 
the manifold duties of a good citizen with whole-hearted energy. 
He first familiarized himself with the details of his own busi- 
ness, the management of his great estate. That, in itself, was a 
gigantic undertaking, l)ut it was performed by him with thor- 
oughness. He also proceeded to improve his estate by the erec- 
tion of various fine new buildings, which are at once a source of 
revenue to him and an ornament to the city. He did not seek 
to avoid even the petty but often onerous duties of a juryman in 
the local courts, but in that and other ways showed himself 
willing to assume all the burdens, great and small, of an Ameri- 
can citizen. He entered into business relations with various 
enterprises, becoming a director of such institutions as the 
National Park Bank, the Title Guaranty and Trust Company, 
the Mercantile Trust Company, the Plaza Bank, the Illinois Cen- 
tral Raih'oad, the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Equi- 
table Life Assurance Society, the New York Life Insurance and 
Trust Company, the Astor National Bank, etc. 

From an early age Mr, Astor manifested a decided inclination 
toward literary and scientific work. While at St. Paid's School 
he was the contributor of numerous articles of merit to academic 
publications. In 189-1 he published a volume entitled " A Jour- 
ney in Other Worlds : A Romance of the Future." In this he 
dealt with the operations of a new force, styled "apergy," the 
reverse of gravitation. He adopted the theory that the conquest 
of natm'e would be — or actually had been — so far achieved that 
man had become master of the elemental forces of the universe. 
Thus air navigation had become a practical agency of communi- 
cation and transportation. Nor was navigation confined to om* 
ordinary atmosphere. His daring voyagers traversed the inter- 
planetary spaces, and visited Jupiter as easily as we now cross 
the Atlantic. They found in the distant planets strange and lux- 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR 19 

uriant life, with singing flowers, extraordinary reptiles, spiders 
three hundred feet long, railroad trains running three hundi'ed 
miles an houi*, and, most marvelous of all, great cities with clean 
streets and good government. This remarkable literary and 
philosophical extravaganza attracted much attention, and was 
much praised by competent critics for its excellence of style, as 
well as for its daring imagination. It ran through many edi- 
tions here and also in England, and was published in France in 
translation. 

Mr. Astor has long taken an active interest in military affairs, 
and his appointment as a colonel on the staff of Governor Morton, 
in 1895, was recognized as a most fitting one. In that office he 
did admirable service, and identified himself with the best inter- 
ests of the State troops. But a far more important service was 
before him. At the very outbreak of the Spanish -American 
War, on April 25, 1898, Mr. Astor visited Washington, had an 
interview with the President, and offered his services in any 
capacity in which he might be useful to the nation. At the 
same time he made a free offer of his fine steam-yacht, the 
Nourmahal, for the use of the Navy Department. The latter 
offer was dechned with thanks, after due consideration, the navy 
officers not finding the yacht exactly available for their pm-poses. 
The tender of personal services was gratefxilly accepted, and on 
May 13, 1898, Mr. Astor was appointed an inspector-general in 
the army, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. For the duties 
of this place his former experience on the staff of Governor 
Morton gave him especial fitness. On May 15 he went on duty 
on the staff of Major-General Breckinridge, inspector-general, 
his first work being a tour of inspection of the military camps 
which had been established in the South. 

In that occupation Colonel Astor found plenty of work, much 
of it of a by no means pleasant character ; but he performed all of 
it with the zeal and thoroughness that have been characteristic 
of him in all his undertakings. There was no attempt to play 
the part of "gentleman soldier." The distinctions of wealth 
and social rank were laid aside at the call of the fatherland, and 
the millionaire became the unconventional comrade of every 
man, rich or poor, who was loyally fighting for the old flag. 

After some weeks of duty in the United States, Colonel Astor 



20 JOHN JACOB ASTOR 

was ordered to Tampa and to Cuba with the first army of in- 
vasion, and did admirable service. He served with bravery .and 
efQciency during the battles and siege of Santiago, and was rec- 
ommended for promotion by his chief, General Shafter. He 
fell a victim to the malarial fever that prevailed there, but his 
robust constitution brought him safely thi"ough an ordeal which 
proved fatal to many of his comrades. After the sun'ender of 
Santiago he was sent to Washington as the bearer of important 
despatches and other documents to the President. At Tampa, 
on July 27, he and his fellow-travelers were stopped by the State 
sanitary authorities and ordered into qiiarantine for a few days. 
Colonel Astor took it philosophically, as one of the incidents of 
the campaign, disregarding the personal discomfort, and only re- 
gretting the delay in placing before the President the informa- 
tion with which he was charged. Finally the quarantine was 
raised, and Colonel Astor proceeded to Washington and delivered 
his message, and was enabled to do some valuable work for the 
War Department. 

On August 11, the day before the formal signing of the proto- 
col of peace, but after the war was practically ended and the 
immediate restoration of peace was fully assured, Colonel Astor 
went on a furlough to his home at Ferneliff, and was enthu- 
siastically welcomed by his friends and neighbors of Rhiuebeck 
and all the country roimd. 

Worthy of record, also, is his gift to the government of the 
Astor Battery. At the outbreak of the war he offered to recruit 
and fuUy equip at his own expense a battery of light artillery. 
The offer was officially accepted by the government on May 26. 
The next day recruiting was begian. Volunteers flocked in with 
enthusiasm. On May 30 drill was begun. The next day saw 
the battery complete, with one hundred and two men and six 
twelve-pound Hotchkiss guns. The total cost of it to Colonel 
Astor was about seventy-five thousand dollars. After spending 
some time in drilling, the battery was sent across the continent 
to San Francisco and thence to Manila, where it arrived in time 
to take part in the operation against that city and in its final 
capture on August 13. The guns used by this battery were im- 
ported from England, and were the best of their kind to be had in 
the world. The uniforms worn by the soldiers were of the famous 



JOHN JACOB ASTOR 21 

yellow-brown khaki cloth, such as is worn by British soldiers in 
tropical countries. It was light in texture, cool and comfortable, 
and in all respects admirable for the purpose. The soldiers also 
had regular service uniforms, of blue cloth with scarlet facings. 
Colonel Astor's immediate connection with the battery ceased 
when he had paid the heavy bills for its organization and equip- 
ment, but it continued to bear his name, and its record in the 
nation's service abides as a lasting memorial of his generous and 
thoughtful patriotism, which led him to give his own time and 
labor, and to risk his own hfe, and also to give freely of his 
wealth to enable others to serve the government in the most 
effective manner. There are, indeed, few names in the story of 
the brief but glorious war of 1898 more honorably remembered 
than that of Colonel John Jacob Astor. 

Colonel Astor was married, in 1891, to Miss Ava Willing of 
Philadelphia. She is a daughter of Edward Shippen WilUng and 
Alice C. Barton WilHug, whose names suggest many a chapter of 
worthy American history. Thomas Willing, a great-great-grand- 
father of Mrs. Astor, was Mayor of Philadelphia, and first 
president of both the Bank of North America and the Bank of 
the United States. He aided in di-awing up the Constitution of 
the United States, and designed the coat of arms of this govern- 
ment. Another of Mrs. Astor's ancestors was the Hon. C. W. 
Barton, who in 1653 was a conspicuous member of the British 
Parhament. By this marriage Mr. Astor not only allied himself 
with a family of national distinction, but gained the life-com- 
panionship of a j)articularly charming and congenial woman. 
Mrs. Astor's native talents and refinement have been added to by 
careful education, well fitting her for the most exalted social 
position. She is, moreover, fond of and proficient in those opeii- 
air recreations and sports into which her husband enters with 
keen enjoyment. She is an expert tennis- and golf -player, and 
can saU a boat Uke a veteran sea-captain. She also possesses the 
not common accomplishment of being a fine shot with a rifle or 
revolver, and on more than one hunting expedition has given 
most tangible evidence of her skill. 

Colonel Astor is a member of numerous clubs in this city and 
elsewhere, including the Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Union, 
Tuxedo, City, Riding, Racquet, Country, New York Yacht, Down- 



^ 



22 JOHN JACOB ASTOR 

Town, Delta Phi, Newport Golf, Newport Casino, and Society 
of Colonial Wars. 

In the fall of 1898 the nomination for Congi-ess was offered to 
Colonel Astor in the district in which his city home is situated, 
hut he was constrained by his business and other interests to 
decline it. 

Colonel Astor spends much of his time upon the estate which 
was his father's and upon which he himself was bom. This is 
Ferncliff, near Rhinebeck, on the Hudson River. It com- 
prises more than fifteen hundred acres, and extends for a 
mile and a half along the river-bank. About half of it is 
in a state of high cultivation, but much of the remainder is left 
in its native state of wild beauty, or touched with art only to 
enhance its charms and to make them more accessible for enjoy- 
ment. The house is a stately mansion in the Italian stj'le of 
architecture, standing upon a plateau and commanding a superb 
outlook over the Hudson River, Rondout Creek, the Shawan- 
gunk Mountains, and the distant Catskills. A noteworthy feature 
of the place is the great series of greenhouses, twelve in nu,mber, 
in which all kinds of flowers and fi'uits are grown to perfection 
at all seasons of the year. Rhinebeck and its vicinity are the 
home of many people of wealth and culture, among whom the 
Astors are foremost. 

The Astor home in this city is a splendid mansion built of 
limestone in the French style of Francis I. It stands at the 
corner of Fifth Avenue and Sixty-fifth Street, and is one of the 
chief architectural adornments of that stately part of the me- 
tropolis. It was designed by the late Richard M. Hunt, and is 
regarded as one of the masterpieces of that cUstinguished archi- 
tect. In this house each season some of the most magnificent 
social gatherings of New York occur, for, of course, in this city, 
at Newport, and wherever they go, Mr. and Mrs. Astor are 
among the foremost social leaders. 




n 



I 



BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AYER 

A MONGr the early pioneers of New England was John Ayer, 
XjL who came over from Norfolk, England, in 1637, and in 1645 
settled permanently at Haverhill, Massachusetts, where many of 
his descendants still reside. A contemporary of his was the 
Rev. Stephen Bachelder, who came fi-oni Hampshire, England, 
in 1632, and in 1638 became the first pastor of Hampton, New 
Hampshire. In the seventh generation from John Ayer was 
Robert Ayer, who for many years was a merchant, and who 
spent the latter part of his hfe on a New England farm. He 
married Louisa Sanborn, a daughter of Benjamin Sanborn of 
Kingston, New Hampshire, and a direct descendant of John 
Sanborn, who was a grandson of the Rev. Stephen Bachelder. 

Benjamin Franklin Ayer was born to Robert and Louisa San- 
born Ayer, at Kingston, Rockingham County, New Hampshire, 
on April 22, 1825. After receiving a careful primary education 
he was fitted for college at the Albany (New York) Academy, 
then under the charge of Dr. T. Romeyn Beck, and thence went 
to Dartmouth College, where he was graduated in 1846. He 
chose the law as his profession, and studied it for three years 
preparatory to practice, one year being spent at the Harvard 
Law School He was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in 
1849. In 1878 he received the honorary degree of LL. D. from 
Dartmouth College. 

Mr. Ayer entered upon the practice of his profession at Man- 
chester, New Hampshire, in 1849, and soon attained a high rank 
at the bar and in public esteem. In 1853 he was a Representa- 
tive from Manchester in the New Hampshire Legislature. The 
next year he was appointed prosecuting attorney for Hillsbor- 
ough County, and held that important office until 1857. In the 

23 



24 BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AYEK 

latter year he removed to Chicago, lUinois, and on May 15 was 
admitted to practice in the courts of Illinois. Since that date he 
has been a member of the Chicago bar, and has there won suc- 
cess and high distinction. At first he was engaged in general 
practice, but in 18G1 he was appointed counsel to the corpora- 
tion of the city of Chicago, and held that office until 1865, when 
he resigned it. Thenceforward for eleven years he was again 
engaged in general practice. In 1876 he accepted the appoint- 
ment of general solicitor of the Illinois Central Railroad Com- 
pany, and devoted his attention to the affairs of that corporation. 
In 1890 he became general counsel to the same company, and 
still holds that place. 

For more than twenty years Mr. Ayer has been president of 
the Western Railway Association. He is a member of the 
Chicago Bar Association, and has been its president; and a 
member of the Chicago Historical Society, the Chicago Literary 
Club, the Ai't Institute of Chicago, and the Chicago Club ; these 
being the foremost social and professional organizations of that 
city. 

Mr. Ayer was mai-ried, in 1868, to Miss Janet A. Hopkins, 
daughter of the late Hon. James C. Hopkins of Madison, Wis- 
consin, judge of the District Court of the United States for the 
Western District of Wisconsin. Mr. and Mrs. Ayer have one 
son and three daughters : Walter Ayer ; Mary L. Ayer, wife of 
Samuel T. Chase ; Janet Ayer, wife of Kellogg Fairbank ; and 
Margaret H. Ayer. 








L^-iTyrCvc^J^^ 




HENRY CLINTON BACKUS 

AMONG the State-builders of early New England the Backus 
-Jr\- family was conspicuous. Its founder m this country was 
Wilham Backiis, who came from England and settled at Say- 
brook, Connecticut, about 1635. He and his son Stephen were 
later among the founders of Norwich, in that State, in 1659, the 
elder Backus giving, with the consent of his fellow-settlers, that 
city its name ; and in 1700 his grandson, Stephen, was the 
founder of Canterbiuy, also in Connecticut. His descendant, 
Timothy Backus, an ancestor of our subject, was a leading and 
dominant theological controversiahst in New England about the 
middle of the last century. His child, Elisha Backus, was with 
" Old Put " at Bunker Hill, and fought through the Revolution- 
ary War, attaining the rank of major. After the war he re- 
moved fi'om Connecticut to Onondaga County, New York, and 
settled at Manlius. His son, Elisha Backus, was a colonel in the 
War of 1812, and, at its close, became prominent in the arts of 
peace by developing the then new coimtry of the central and 
northern parts of the State of New York with the stage-line with 
which he opened up the district, one hundred and fifty miles 
long, between Utica and Ogdensburg. A son of this later Ehsha 
Backus, Charles Chapman Backus, was a well-known citizen of 
Utica, New York, being a member of the firm of Bennett, Backus 
& Hawley, publishers, who conducted the largest publishing- 
house and book-store then in New York State outside of its chief 
city, and issued the " Baptist Register," now the " Examiner," 
of New York city, then, as now, the leading newspaper of the 
Baptists in this country. He married Harriet Newell Baldwin, 
a daughter of Edward Baldwin and Anne Lewis, who both came 
from Wales in 1800, and settled in Utica about 1805. Edward 

25 



26 HENBY CLINTON BACKUS 

Baldwin was one of Utica's most liighly esteemed citizens until 
his death, in 1871. 

Charles Chapman Backus and his wife came to New York city 
to live about 1850, bringing with them their infant son, Henry 
Clinton Backus, the subject of this sketch, who had been born 
at Utica on May 31, 1848. The son was educated in the public 
and private schools of this city, was prepared for college at 
Phillips Academy, Exeter, New Hampshire, and then was ma- 
triculated at Harvard University, wherefrom he was graduated 
in the class of 1871. Two years later he was graduated from the 
Law School of Columbia University, and thereupon was admitted 
to the New York bar. He at once entered the office of Sanford, 
Robinson & Woodruff, but, a year afterward, that of Beebe, 
Wilcox & Hobbs. This latter fii-m had probably a more exten- 
sive admiralty practice in the federal courts than any other 
law fii'm, and in attending to it he gained much valuable experi- 
ence. His practice has not, however, been confined to any single 
branch of legal judicature. He has been counsel in many im- 
portant cases of a great variety of character, in the numerous 
branches of civil or mmiicipal law. He is much esteemed for his 
knowledge of constitutional history and law, and of international 
law ; he is the legal adviser of several large estates ; and though 
generally not practising criminal law, he successfully conducted 
at least one most noteworthy criminal case. This case, the State 
of Kansas rs. Baldwin, is worth recounting. In response to 
local clamor, the defendant had been prosecuted upon the charge 
of having murdered his sister, had been contacted, and had been 
sentenced to death. The case was vainly appealed to the State's 
Supreme Bench, when Mr. Backus, upon urgent solicitation, 
took up the case, prepared an elaborate brief, created a counter 
public opinion by causing the chculation throughout Kansas of 
vigorous editorial articles in the Albany " Law Journal," the 
New York " Tribune," and other papers, and finally induced the 
Governor to make a careful investigation of the case. The out- 
come was that the man's innocence was clearly established, and 
an imconditional pardon was gi-anted to him. 

Two incidents in the early life of ]VIr. Backus should be noticed 
because they disclose the strong, resolute character which has 
been so useful to him and so helpful to others during his subse- 



HENKY CLINTON BACKUS 27 

quent life. Wliile yet a youth he formed and commanded dur- 
ing the late War of the RebeUion a company in a regiment 
known as the " McClellan Grays," recruited from students in 
the public schools in New York city, who, though too young for 
legal enlistment in the volimteer army, were animated by such 
patriotic zeal as to organize for the pm-pose of protecting the 
national capital in case of attack upon it by the rebels in force, 
or for any sudden emergency of dangerous and extreme import 
to their country. About the same period he bravely and resist- 
lessly advocated the cause of the negro, and taught a class of 
colored children among the white children in the Sunday-school 
of a fashionable church in New York city, in the face of bitter 
and intense opposition, begotten of the malignant antipathy to 
the negro race then prevalent in much of the North as well as at 
the South. He was making speeches upon the public rostrum 
at sixteen years of age ; and so meritorious was his com*se at 
this time of his hf e that it won for him the warm personal regard 
and friendship of several of the nation's heroes and great states- 
men of the war period. 

Besides being one of the most successful practising lawyers in 
New York, Mi". Backus has long been conspicuous among pohtical 
leaders. For more than ten years he was a member of the 
Republican county committee, and for five years served as a 
member of its committee on resolutions. While here he caused 
the constitution of the coimty committee to be so amended as to 
empower twenty-five enrolled voters in any assembly district to 
compel the primary election polls in that chstrict to be kept open 
twelve instead of only six hours. In 1891 he was made a mem- 
ber of the executive committee of the county committee, and 
was elected leader of his party in his assembly district. By 
reason of a revolt against the previous leadership and manage- 
ment in the district, his delegation encountered a most bitter 
contest of five months' duration for its seats in the county 
committee ; but Mr. Backus triumphantly vindicated its claim 
to its seats, and his leadership was accompanied by a harmony 
and peace unknown for many years in the district. The follow- 
ing year, however, he declined reelection to the leadership when 
it was tendered to him. He has on numerous occasions repre- 
sented his district in county and State conventions of the 



28 HENRY CLINTON BACKUS 

Republican party. Various nominations for pubnc office, among 
which have been for assemblyman, for surrogate, and for judge 
of the city com-t, have been offered to him ; but he has declined 
them all. He was nominated in 1893 to represent the Seventh 
Senatorial District in the State constitutional convention, but 
was defeated, the district being overwhelmingly Democratic. He 
obtained, however, the highest vote of all candidates running on 
the entire Republican ticket that year in that district. He was 
elected, in 1898, chairman of the delegation from his assembly 
district to the general committee of the Republicans of New 
York County, who combined in protest against the corrupt 
methods and imperious dictation of the previous management 
of the party in the county. 

Apart from politics Mr. Backus has many interests of more 
than personal significance. He was one of the committee on the 
construction of the tomb and monument of Ulysses S. Grant, at 
the head of Riverside Drive, New York. He is a member of the 
city and State bar associations, of the Repubhcan Club of the 
city of New York, of the Dwight Alumni Association, and 
of the Harvard Club of New York city. He is also an hon- 
orary member of the Railway Conductors' Club of North 
America, and a fellow of the American Geogi-aphical Society, in 
the information garnered and distributed and the enterprises 
advanced by which body he takes a scholarly interest. 

His much-esteemed wife is a valued member of the board of 
managers of the New York Colored Orphan Asylum. Of two 
children born to them, one, a son, is living. 




.^1^1 



p^ 



#■■■ '.'-■; 




^^^^ ■ ■'■'■■■'■^-■\ 




t^o^K-- 



WILLIAM T. BAKER 

THE selection of a man as the representative of a great city's 
enterprise and industry, and as its leader in an undertaking 
of world-wide import, may safely be regarded as a token of his 
high merit and of pubhe appreciation thereof. When, therefore, 
Wilham T. Baker was chosen president of the Chicago Directory 
of the World's Colmnbian Exposition, he was by that very act 
marked as a typical representative of the l)usiness men of that 
phenomenaUy entei-prising city. 

Mr. Baker began his business career at the age of fourteen 
years as a clerk in a country " general store " at Groton, New 
York. His second engagement was of the same character, at 
McLean, New York. While at the latter place he " caught the 
Western fever," and determined to follow the storied " course of 
empire." Accordingly he went to Chicago, and presently se- 
cured employment as bookkeeper for the firm of Hinckley & 
Handy, in the old Board of Trade Building on South Water 
Street. There his abihty began to find scope. Promotions 
came to him, and finally he succeeded Mr. Handy as a memljer 
of the firm. That connection lasted until 1868, when Mr. Baker, 
now a well-established business leader in the Lake City, formed 
a partnership with C. A. Knight and W. F. Cobb, under the 
name of Knight, Baker & Co., which continued until 1872, when 
Mr. Knight retired from business. Mr. Baker retired pei^ma- 
nently from active business on the Board of Trade in 1891 to 
accept the presidency of the World's Fair. In addition to his 
Chicago interests Mr. Baker has large business interests in the 
State of Washington, where he has invested much capital for the 
development of water and electric power for street railroads and 
other pui-poses in Seattle, Tacoma, and elsewhere 

29 



30 WILLIAM T. BAKER 

His indxistrial and commercial duties, tliougn so multifarious 
and heavy, have not prevented Mr. Baker from taking an active 
interest in civic affairs. In 1895-96 he was president of the 
Civic Federation of Chicago, which did a gi'eat work for that 
city in the direction of securing clean streets and suppressing 
gambling and other foi-ms of vice. He admirably filled the 
office, and was not deterred from fulfilhng its duties even by 
the cowardly threats of assassination made against him and his 
family. 

No more just account of Mr. Baker can perhaps be given than 
is contained in these remarks of Mr. George F. Stone, secretary 
of the Chicago Board of Trade, on Mr. Baker's election as presi- 
dent of the Directory of the World's Fair in 1891. " The career 
of Mr. Baker," he said, " is that of a tyjDical progressive Ameri- 
can, which rendered his appointment as president of the World's 
Fair an approj^riate one. Endowed with keen and discriminat- 
ing mental characteristics, of an intensely active temperament, 
bordering upon impetuosity, yet so nicely adjusted as not to vio- 
late the dictates of good judgment, courageously ambitious, of 
an indomitable will, he early gi'appled with humble surroundings 
with a sublime confidence, to carve out for himself an honorable 
and eminent mercantile position. Toward that position he 
steadily and unfalteringly advanced from step to step through 
subordinate experiences, until in the very prime of his manhood 
he is recognized in the great markets of the world as an eminent, 
successful, and honorable merchant. 

" Mr. Baker possesses those qualities, inseparable from strong 
characters, which bold a man self -poised and imperturbable in 
times of great tension, when many men are overpowered, dis- 
heartened, and defeated. In such times his latent capacities are 
brought into requisition and stamp him the exceptional man 
that he is — qualified to discharge great responsibilities and to 
confront serious emergencies. With a remarkable mental alert- 
ness he seizes upon the salient points of a question or of a propo- 
sition, and fairly rushes at correct conclusions ; this enables him 
to quickly organize and to rapidly consiunmate his plans. His 
confidence in himself does not prevent him from carefully 
weighing the views of others. 

Mr. Baker is sensitively ahve to the personal responsibility 



U ' 



WILLIAM T. BAKER 31 

-which a pubhc trust imposes, and he scrupulously discharges his 
official duties. His convictions are strong and well defined, and 
his determined advocacy of them expressed regardless of their 
effect upon his personal popularity. 

" Mr. Baker was elected to the presidency of the Board of 
Trade by a very large majority, amounting practically to a una- 
nimity, and was unanimously reelected to that important office. 
His administration is distinguished by his uncompromising war 
upon so-called bucket-shops, and in the maintenance of legiti- 
mate business, and by his identification with a common and gen- 
eral prosperity, against all monopolies. He has always been on 
the side of the farmer in the adoption of all proper means to 
obtain remunerative prices for the products of the soil and for 
the enrichment of the great West. He believes in the utmost 
freedom of man and of his inalienable right to all natural 
advantages. He would destroy completely all barriers to an 
unhindered commercial intercourse, not only between States, but 
between countries, and has an abiding faith in the salutary re- 
sults of an untrammeled and generous commercial competition. 

" He is a man of quick sympathies, and claims for charity are 
subjected to the same searching analysis which by the constitu- 
tion and habit of his mind he applies to business propositions. 
When he establishes their deservedness, he acts immediately, 
practically, and unostentatiously, and upon the maxim that ' he 
gives twice who gives quickly.' His extensive business interests 
do not entirely absorb his time, and his views upon controlling 
and prominent subjects of public concern are, by reading and 
thought, well matured and emphatic ; hence his duties of citi- 
zenship are intelligently and fearlessly performed." 

Mr. Baker was elected president of the Chicago Board of Trade 
in 1890, and was four times reelected, thus holding the place five 
times, an unrivaled record. He is a member of the Chicago 
Club, the Iroquois Club, the Washington Park Club, and other 
organizations. He was married, in 1862, to Miss E. A. Dunster, 
who died in 1873. Six years latei', in 1879, he was again mar- 
ried, to Mrs. Anna F. Morgan of Troy, New York. He has 
three sons and two daughters. 



JOSEPH CLARK BALDWIN 



THE ancestry (»f Joseph Clark Baldwin, the well-known man- 
iifacturei', merchant, and financier, is in this eonntry an old 
and distinguished one. The founder of his family in America 
was John Baldwin, who came from England in 1637 in the good 
ship Ilecfor, and was a member of the New Haven colony. On 
the maternal side, his earliest American ancestor was William 
Bradley, who was a captain in the English armj', and who in 
1637 came hither from England and settled at New Haven, Con- 
necticiit. Mr. Bakhvin is also directly descended, in the eighth 
generation, from Captain Nathaniel Turner; in the seventh 
generation, from ]Matthew Gilbert, Deputy Governor of Con- 
necticut, from Roger Ailing, Treasurer of the New Haven col- 
ony, from Lieutenant Francis Bell, and from the Hon. Richard 
Treat, one of those to whom the Royal Charter of Connecticut 
was granted; in the sixth generation, from Robert Treat, Go\'- 
ernor of Connecticut, from Ensign Richard Baldwin, from John 
Ailing, Judge of the Probate Court of Connecticut, from Cap- 
tain John Beard, and from Lieutenant Abram Bradley; and in 
the fifth generation, from Lieutenant Daniel Bradley and from 
Zachariah Baldwin. His father was Joseph Beard Baldwin, 
an architect and builder who erected in New Haven some of the 
finest churches, houses, and other buildings of his time. His 
mother's maiden name was Cynthia Eliza Bradley. 

Of such parentage and ancestry Mr. Baldwin was born at New 
Haven, Connecticut, on March 19, 1838, and w^as well educated 
in the schools of that city. At the age of seventeen he became 
a teacher, serving for one year as assistant to John E. Lovell, 
the principal of the Lancasterian public school of New Haven. 



32 




^^/Mmccih^^ 



Z-t^ 



JOSEPH CLAKK BALDWIN 33 

At the end of tlie year he resigned the place and withdrew from 
teaching in order to enter business life. On April 11, 1856, being 
then just over eighteen years of age, he came to New York city, 
and entered the employ of Thomas Hope & Co. This was a 
grocery house, the predecessor of the present comj)an3^ of Acker, 
Merrall & Condit. After four months' service, however, he 
resigned his place there, and on September 1, 1856, entered 
the employ of William Partridge & Son, manufacturers of and 
dealers in dye-stuffs. Thus he became identified with the chief 
business of his life. He remained with that firm until its dis- 
solution, and subsequently, on January 1, 1865, became a partner 
of a firm which succeeded it. Seven years later, on January 1, 
1872, the firm was incorporated luider the name of the New 
York Dyewood Extract & Chemical Company, and of that 
concern Mr. Baldwin became treasurer and held that office 
diiring 1883. Then he became its president, and held that 
place until July 1, 1892. On the latter date that corporation 
and the Boston D^yewood & Chemical Company were united 
imder the name of the New York & Boston Dyewood Com- 
pany, of which Mr. Baldwin was elected, and still is, president. 
In addition, he is president of the Compagnie Haitienne, a 
director of the Texas & Pacific Coal Company, and of the 
Market & Fulton National Bank of New York, and a trustee 
of the North River Savings Bank and of the Washington 
Trust Company of New York. 

Amid his ])usiness duties, Mr. Baldwin has developed no taste 
for political activity, beyond discharging the duties of a citizen. 
He is a member of a number of prominent social organizations, 
among which are the New England Society of New York, the 
Society of Colonial Wars, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
the American Museum of Natural History, the Fulton Club, the 
Accomack Club, and the Laurentian Club. 

Mr. Baldwin was married on October 2, 1861, to Miss Emma 
Jane Mood, and has four children: William Mood Baldwin, 
Harry Bradley Baldwin, Joseph Clark Baldwin, Jr., and 
Charles Lansing Baldwin. 



JOHN RARICK BENNETT 

AMERICANS have been described as the most inventive 
_ people iu the world, "Yankee notions" and "Yankee in- 
gennity" having become proverbial the world over. It is true 
that the files of the United States Patent Office indicate a more 
fecund and vei'satile inventive faculty here than is to be per- 
ceived in any other country, the range of contrivance covering 
the entire scope of human needs and activities. Naturally, 
therefore, the profession of the patent lawyer has become one 
of gi'eat importance. The searching of the files to discover 
whether the applicant for a patent is really the first inventor, 
or whether he has been forestalled by some other, the prosecu- 
tion and defense of suits of rival claimants, the adjustment of 
interference cases, the legal organization of corporations for 
the development of newly patented devices, and innumerable 
other details, all form one of the most important departments 
of legal practice, to which many able lawyers have found it 
13rofitable to devote themselves. 

Among the most successful of contemporary patent lawyers 
is John Rarick Bennett of New York city. He was born at 
Phillipslnirg, New Jersey, about fifty years ago, the son of John 
C. Bennett of that place. After a careful academic training he 
entered Princeton University, and was there graduated. He 
also pursiied a course in law and was admitted to the l)ar of the 
State of Pennsylvania. He began his practice in PhiladeliAia, 
in partnership with George Harding, and there remained until 
1878, when he removed to New York city, where he was ad- 
mitted to practice in the Federal Courts. In New York he has 
l^ractised alone with great success, his offices being at No. 31 

34 






u 



-^L^-c.-^!-^'^ 



JOHN KARICK BENNETT 35 

Nassau Street. He has for years made a specialty of patent 
law, and his practice is almost exclusively confuied thereto. 

Among the clients whose legal interests Mr. Bennett has 
served may be mentioned the City of New York, the United 
States Steel C'Orporation, the American Steel and Wire (_'om- 
pany, the Pressed Steel Car Company, the Welsbach Light 
Company, several large implement and large manufacturing 
corporations of the West, and many companies in which John 
W. Gates, the well-known linancial operator, is and was con- 
nected. 

Mr. Bennett is a Democrat in politics, l)ut has held and has 
sought no public office. He is a member of the Metropolitan, 
Manhattan, and Democratic clubs and the Metropolitan Mu- 
seum of Art in New York, of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg, 
and of the Chicago Club of Chicago. 

He was married some years ago to Miss Carolina Grove of 
Danville, Pennsylvania, where he has an extensive country es- 
tate and other interests which require considerable time and 
attention, and in which, it is said, he has a large amount of capi- 
tal invested. 




SAMUEL AUSTIN BESSON 

SAMUEL AUSTIN BESSON, born at Everittstown, New 
Jersey, on April 6, 1853, is the son of William and Margaret 
A. Besson, the latter bom Case. His father was a prosperous 
and substantial farmer, descended from Francois Besson, a French 
Huguenot, who settled in Hvmterdon County, New Jersey, before 
1730. From Francois Besson the line of descent was as follows : 
John Besson, an ensign of New Jersey troops under Washington 
in the Revolution ; John Besson, who married Rachel Traut and 
had twelve children, of whom four sons became merchants in 
New York and three remained farmers in Hunterdon County ; 
William Besson, who manned Margaret A. Case, daughter of 
Godfrey and Elizabeth (Welch) Case, and had nine children ; 
and Samuel Austin Besson, the youngest of the nine. 

Mr. Besson was educated in the public school at Everittstown, 
in the Caversville (Pennsylvania) Normal School, and at Lafay- 
ette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, where he was a prize-winner 
in his last two years, and was gi'aduated in 1876 with the degree 
of A. B, Immediately after leaving college he was appointed 
pi'incipal of the High School at Phillipsburg, New Jersey, and 
filled the place satisfactoinly for a year. In the fall of 1877 he 
began the study of law with his brother, John C. Besson, at 
Hoboken, New Jersey, and in June, 1879, was, on examination, 
duly admitted to practice as an attorney. In June, 1882, he was 
admitted as counselor. 

His professional career was from the first marked with success. 
In the spring of 1882 he was chosen Corporation Attorney of 
Hoboken by the Council of the city, which then had a Republican 
majority, and filled the place acceptably for a year, when he was 
retired to make room for a Democratic successor. Thereupon he 

36 





Y^/^^^Yyv , 



SAMUEL AUSTIN BESSON 37 

formed a law partnership with his brother, John C. Besson, which 
lasted until the latter's death, in 1894. Then he founded the firm 
of Besson, Stevens & Lewis, his partners being Richard A. Ste- 
vens of Castle Point, Hoboken, and Edwin A. S. Lewis, son of 
Colonel E. P. C. Lewis. This firm was dissolved in March, 1898, 
at the request of ]Mi\ Besson, who had been chosen counsel to 
the Hoboken Bank for Savings. He had previously been counsel 
to the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, the Hoboken 
Ferry Company, the Hoboken Trust and Savings Institution, 
now called the Hoboken Trust Company, the First National Bank 
of Hoboken, and other corporations. 

Diu-ing the year 1889 Mr. Besson was president of the Hud- 
son County Bar Association. He is a ruhng elder of the First 
Presbyterian Chm'ch of Hoboken. He was one of the founders 
and original trustees of the Columbia Club, the foremost social 
organization of Hoboken, of which he is still a member. He is 
a member and trustee of the Castle Point Cyclers, and a member 
of the General Republican Committee of Hudson Coimty. He 
is also a prominent member of Euclid Lodge, No. 136, F. 
and A. M. 

Mr. Besson now has associated with him John R. Spohr, a 
young lawyer of much promise, under the firm-name of Besson 
& Spohr. He is recognized as a strong and skilful advocate, 
and has been connected with numerous important and interest- 
ing cases in the local and State comets. He is a facile wiiter and 
has frequently contributed to ciu-reut literature. He is a dis- 
criminating reader, and a student of law, finance, and political 
economy. 

He was married on November 10, 1881, to Arabella Roseberry, 
daughter of the late Joseph M, Roseberry of Belvidere, New 
Jersey. Theii* two children are named Henrietta Besson and 
John Harlan Besson. 



H. S. BLACK 



THE modern tall office-building, a thing of origin well within 
the memory of the present generation, has been wonder- 
fully developed in the last dozen A'ears in most of ovir great 
cities, and has revolutionized Itoth the appearance and the in- 
dustrial economy of those cities in a remarkable degree. It has 
likewise greatly changed the activities of the building trade, and 
has called into l)eing new cor])orati(>ns expressly devoted to the 
erection of buildings of this novel ty})e. Foremost among such 
corporations is that whose president is the subject of this sketch. 

H. S. Black is a native of the Dominion of Canada, where he 
was born, at Cobourg, Ontario, on August 25, 1863, the son of 
Major Thomas Black, i)aymaster of the Sixty-sixth Regiment 
of the British army, and Elizabeth (Nickens) Black, the for- 
mer a native of Belfast, Ireland, and the latter of Sherburne, 
England. His early life was spent in his native to\vn, and was 
divided between studying in the local school and serving as 
clerk in the "general store." From the latter occuj^ation Mr. 
Black entered the service of a s^^rveying party in the far North- 
west. In 1882 he was employed in a wholesale woolen house 
in Cliicago. Next, he was a commercial traveler for a number 
of years. His next enterprise was that of a l)anker in the State 
of Washington, and subsequently he returned to mercantile 
]Hirsuits as a member of the firm of Black & Bell, at Menominee, 
Michigan, and Tekoe, Washington. 

Mr. Black finally turned, in 1894, to the l)uilding trade. He 
was impressed with its possibilities, especially in the great cities, 
as New York and Chicago. Accordingly he came to New York, 
and in 1894 l)ecame connected with the George A. Fuller Com- 



as 



H. S. BLACK 39 

panj^ as its vice-president. The continued ill health of the presi- 
dent, Mr. Fuller, caused the practical direction of the eomjiany 
to devolve upon Mr. Black down to December, 1901, when Mr. 
Fuller died and ]Mr. Black was chosen to fill his jjlace as presi- 
dent and nominal as well as actual head of the corporation. 

The company of which Mr. Black is the head has constructed 
some of the most noteworthy tall Ijuildings in the world. A 
type of these is the great Broad Exchange Building, the largest 
and finest in New York. Another is the Marquette Building 
in Chicago. A third is the unique "flatiron" structure at 
Broadway and Fifth Avenue, New York, and a fourth is the 
H. C. Frick Building in Pittsburg, said to be the largest and 
most complete office-building in the world. The bviildings of 
this general character erected by this company in New York, 
Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Washing- 
ton, and elsewhere are to be counted by dozens, and constitute 
l)roba])ly the most notable array of edifices constructed by one 
concern in all the world. 

Mr. Black is i^resident of the George A. Fidler Company, 
which is now capitalized at twenty million dollars, and a direc- 
tor of the North American Trust Company and of the Broad Ex- 
change Company, both of New York, and of the Colonial Trust 
and Savings Bank of Chicago. He is the chairman of the board 
of the United States Realty and Construction Company— i.e., 
the head of the great sixty-six-million-dollar realty corjjoration. 
He is a member of the Metropolitan, Manhattan, Lawj^ers' Mid- 
day, and Larchmont Yacht clubs of New York, of the Chicago 
Club of Chicago, and of the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg. He 
was married in 1895 to Miss Alton Mae Fuller, only surviving 
daughter of the late George A. Fuller, and makes his home at 
the Holland House in New York. 




FRANK STUART BOND 

THE Bond family was formerly settled in Bury Saint Ed- 
munds, Suffolk, England, where members of it may still 
be found. About 1630 William Bond came to North America 
and settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, where he was a con- 
spicuous and influential citizen, and was Speaker of the Massa- 
chusetts General Court from 1691 to 1694. In the early part 
of the last century the Rev. Dr. Alvan Bond was a prominent 
clergyman of the Congregational Church. He was in the sixth 
generation of direct descent from William Bond. 

Frank Stuart Bond is a son of the Rev. Dr. Alvan Bond, and 
was born at Sturbridge, Massachusetts, on February 1, 1830. 
He spent his early years at Norwich, Connecticut, and received 
there an excellent education. At the age of nineteen years, in 
1849, he became employed in the treasurer's office of the Nor- 
wich & Worcester Railroad Company. The next year, 1850, he 
went to Cincinnati, Ohio, and jjecame secretary of the Cincin- 
nati, Hamilton & Dayton Railroad Company. He filled that 
office for six years, and then removed to New Yoi'k, where he 
has ever since made his home. From 1857 to 1861 he was secre- 
tary and treasurer of the Auburn & Allentown Railroad Com- 
pany, and also of the Schu,ylkill & Susquehanna Railroad Com- 
pany. 

Mr. Bond's l)usiness career was interrupted, as were the 
careers of so many other men, b}' the Civil War. He entered 
the army as first lieutenant in a Connecticut regiment in 1862, 
and was subseqi;ently commissioned by the President major 
and aide-de-camp. United States Volunteers. He served in the 
Federal Army until November, 1864, when he resigned his 

40 



FBANK STUART BOND -il 

couimissiou. He saw much active service iu tlie field, especially 
as an aide-de-camp on the staffs of General Daniel Tyler and 
General Rosecrans. He took part in the campaign in Missis- 
sipi>i, including the battle of Farmington and the capture of 
Corinth, the important battle of Stone River, and that of TuUa- 
homa ; he was iu the colossal conflict at Chickamauga, the opera- 
tions at Chattanooga and the ea^Dture of that place, and the cam- 
paign against General Price in Missouri. 

On his retirement from the army Mr. Bond resmued his atten- 
tion to railroad affairs. In 1868 he became connected with the 
Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad Company in its New York 
office. A little later he became its vice-president, and held that 
place until 1873. He then became first vice-president of the 
Texas & Pacific Railroad Company, and filled that office for 
eight years. He became in 1881 the jiresident of the Philadel- 
phia & Reading Railroad Company. That great corporation 
was in serious financial straits, and its stockholders were divided 
into two camps— radically divided upon questions of policy. 
Mr. Bond was the leader of the then dominant party, and as 
president of the company executed the policy with which he and 
his friends were identified, playing a part of national impor- 
tance in railroad finance. 

In 1882 Mr. Bond retired from the Reading presidency, and 
in 1884 became president of an associated group of five Southern 
railroads. These were the Cincinnati, New Orleans & Texas 
Pacific, the Alabama & Great Southern, the New Orleans & 
Northwestern, the Vicksburg & Meridian, and the Vicksburg, 
Shreveport & Pacific. Finally, in 1886, he became vice-presi- 
dent of the Chicago, Milwaulcee & St. Paul Railroad Company, 
and held that position for fifteen years, when he resigned. He 
retained his position as a director of that company and of two 
others of his old companies— the New Orleans & Northwestern 
and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Pacific. 

INIr. Bond has been a resident of New York since 1856. He 
is a member of the Union, Metropolitan, Union League, and 
Century clubs, and the Military Order of the Loyal Legion, and 
the Society of the Sons of the American Revolution. 



MATTHEW CHALONER DURFEE BORDEN 



THE family of Bordeu is of French stock, and is traced back 
to the village of Bourdonnay, in Normandy. Some of its 
members went to England with WilHam the Conqueror, and 
acquired estates in Kent, where the parish of Borden received 
its name from them. Richard Borden came to this country in 
1G35, and settled in Rhode Island. His son, Matthew Borden, 
was the first child born of Enghsh parents on Rhode Island 
soil. In the last generation the head of the family was Colonel 
Richard Borden of Fall River, Massachusetts, who was identi-" 
fied with the great Fall River Iron Works and with other im- 
portant industries. His son bears the name of Matthew and 
has continued the family's dominant place in the business world. 
Matthew Chaloner Dm-fee Borden was born at Fall River, 
Massachusetts, on July 18, 1842. He was prepared for college 
at Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, and was gradu- 
ated at Yale in 1861. He then entered business in a New York 
dry-goods jobbing-house. Three years later he became a part- 
ner in a leading New York commission house, and represented 
the American Print Works as selling agent until the faihu-e of 
that company in 1879 ; then, largely through the efforts of him- 
self and his brother, the concern was recognized as the American 
Printing Company and resumed operation in January, 1880. At 
the same time Mr. Borden made an alliance with the commission 
house of J. S. & E. Wright & Co., now Bliss, Fabyan & Co., 
which he has ever since maintained. Mr. Borden purchased his 
brother's interest in the American Printing Company in 1887, 
and since then has been sole owner of the enterprise, which is 
now probably the largest producer of printed cotton cloths in 
the world. In order to secure an independent supply of cloth 



'I 



\^- 'i 





MATTHEW CHALONER DUEFEE BORDEN 43 

for priutiug, Mr. Bordeu built at Fall River, beginning them in 
1889 and completing them in 1895, fom- large spinning and 
weaving mills, which rank among the foremost in that city of 
spindles. These two estaV)lishments (the American Printing 
Company and the cloth-mill under the old corporate name of 
the Fall River Iron Works Company), of which Mr. Borden is 
the owner, employ an army of thousands of operatives, and on 
more than one occasion have dominated the whole cotton-cloth 
market. Mr. Bordeu has always maintained particularly pleas- 
ant relations with his employees, and by his generous leadership 
has averted more than one serious strike and business crisis. 

For many years Mr. Borden has made his home in New York 
city, where he is conspicuous in business, in society, and in 
innumerable public-spirited enterprises. At the outbreak of the 
Spanish war he sold his fine steam-yacht Sovereign to the gov- 
ernment for conversion into a war-ship, and did so at a gi'eat 
pecuniary loss to himself. The yacht was known in the war as 
the Scorpion, and did good service. In 1896 Mr. Borden built 
and presented to the Boys' Club of Fall River a club-house at an 
expense of more than $100,000. At the two himdredth anni- 
versary of Yale College, in June, 1901, Mr. Borden's gift of 
$100,000 to the Yale Bicentennial Fund w^as announced. He 
has held no public office save that of Park Commissioner, which 
he held for six years and filled in a most public-spirited manner. 
He has made various benefactions to the great museums of New 
York and to other institutions. 

Mr. Borden is a director of the Manhattan Company Bank, of 
the Lincoln National Bank, of the Astor Place Bank, of the 
Lincoln Safe Deposit Company, and of the New York Secm'ity 
and Trust Company. He is a member of many social organiza- 
tions, including the Yale Ahimni Association, the New England 
Society, and the Union League, Metropolitan, Republican, Mer- 
chants', Down-Town, Players, Riding, New York, New York 
Yacht, Atlantic Yacht, Larchmont Yacht, American Yacht, 
Seawanhaka Yacht, South Side Sportsmen's, and Jekyl Island 
clubs. He was married, in 1865, to Miss Hamet M. Durfee of 
Fall River, who has borne him seven children, of whom three 
survive : Bertram Harold, Matthew Sterhng, and Howard 
Seymour. 



THOMAS MURPHY BOYD 



THE Scotch-Irish element, so called, has long been an impor- 
tant one in the United States in business and professional 
as well as in political and social life. It was planted in the 
central parts of the colonies at an early date, and brought hither 
with it the best qualities of thrift, energy, and mental power 
which had distinguished it in both of the lands from which it 
derives its name. At the present date thousands of the ablest 
Americans trace their origin to such ancestry, as does the subject 
of the present sketch. 

Bartley B. Boyd and his "svife, whose maiden name was Ellen 
Murphy, were both descended from Scotch-Irish families which 
came to this country early in the seventeenth century and settled 
in Maryland and Virginia, some of them later mo\'ing into Penn- 
sylvania, where many of their countrymen were established. 
Members of both families were conspicuous and effective in 
Washington's army in the Revolutionary War, At the begin- 
ning of our national life the Boyds moved westward and settled 
at Cincinnati, being among the pioneers of Ohio. In the last 
generation Bartley B. and Ellen Murphy Boyd lived on a farm 
at Monroe, Butler County, Ohio, and there their son, Thomas 
Murphy Boyd, was born on July 22, 1860. The boy received a 
good education in the local public schools, and was graduated 
from the High School at Amanda, Ohio, after which he turned 
his attention to a business career. 

His first engagement was in the capacity of a bookkeeper when 
he was nineteen years of age. This was in a " general store " at 
Middletown, Ohio. A year later he was taken into equal part- 
nership in the firm. But in another year his health failed and 
he was compelled to retire from this establishment. At the age 

44 





(2^^^,^ /^i--v 



'LL, «X_. 



THOMAS MUKPHY BOYD 45 

of twenty-two, with health restored, he began anew as a book- 
keeper in a large mercantile house at Indianapolis, Indiana. 
From that time forward his business career was steadily pro- 
gressive and highly suecessfid. At the present time Mr. Boyd 
is president of three large business establishments, namely, the 
Western Brewing Company of Belleville, Illinois, the American 
School Furniture Company of New York city, and the Sidney 
School Furnitvu-e Company of Sidney, Ohio. In all of these 
enterprises he has been eminently successfiil. Thus, speaking 
of the American School Furniture Company, the " Commercial 
and Financial World" has said: "Of this company Mr. Thomas 
M. Boyd is president, and there is no secret about the fact that 
he has made a wonderful success of his work in its behalf. He 
is a man of high and honoraljle standing in business and financial 
circles, and is looked up to and respected by everybody." 

Mr. Boyd has taken part in the public service as well as in 
private business enterprises. At the age of twenty-five he was 
solicited to take the place of Assistant County Treasurer and 
Assistant City Treasiu-er at Hamilton, Ohio, and filled the place 
acceptably for four years. Then he was, at the age of twenty- 
nine, elected by the people to be County and City Treasurer. He 
is a member of various social organizations, chief among which 
is the Union League Club of Chicago. 

Mr. Boyd was married at Indianapohs, on May 20, 1885, to Miss 
Minnie Gage, daughter of L. H. Oage, president of the L. H. 
Gage Lumber Company of Indianapolis and of Memphis, Ten- 
nessee. Two daughters have been born to them, who bear the 
names of Lilhan Ethel and Ruth. 




ALONZO NORMAN BURBANK 

THERE are to-day found iu the conservative New England 
States some of the most progressive business undertakings 
and some of the most energetic and successful business men this 
nation can boast. A fine example of this class is to be found in 
the career of the subject of the present sketch. Half a century 
and more ago Peleg N. Burbank was a prosperoi;s shoe manu- 
facturer at Frankhn, New Hampshire. To liim and his wife, 
Sarah Burbank, a son was born at Franklin, on October 9, 1843. 
The boy was named Alonzo Norman Burbank, and was sent to 
the local schools, including an excellent academy of high-school 
rank. He was an apt scholar, and learned, with practical thor- 
oughness, all there was to learn in those institutions, and, in 
addition, a great deal more through observation and inquiry 
outside of the school-room. Then, with a bent for business 
rather than for professional life, he went to work in his father's 
shoe factory. 

His first work there consisted in putting strings or laces into 
shoes. Such work he was able to do in mere childhood. Thence 
he went to a local "general store," where he was engaged as a 
clerk, and dealt out groceries, dry-goods, and what not to rural 
customers. This was a humble calhng, yet the training of a 
"general store" is by no means to be despised as a preparation 
for a higher business career. Next he went to the local railroad, 
and became a brakeman, a telegraph opei-ator, and a station- 
agent. 

Mr. Bm'bank's next move carried him into the business which 
was to absorb the chief attention of his life and in which he has 
attained conspicuous success. This was the business of paper- 
making. He entered a paper-mill, as bookkeeper, at the time 

46 




# 



o 



XL ^^y 



^ 



ALONZO NOKMAN BUEBANK 47 

when that business was on the point of being revokitionized by 
the substitution of wood-pulp for linen, straw, and other material. 
The place was auspicious, too, for the New England States, with 
their vast forests of spruce and hemlock and their superb moun- 
tain streams of pm-e water, afforded at once and together the 
material and the power for paper-making, and quickly became 
the chief seat of that important industry. 

It has been Mr. Burbank's lot to play a leading part in the 
development of this lousiness to its present mammoth propor- 
tions. From the humble clerkship with which he began, he 
rose through successive steps to be treasurer of the Fall Moun- 
tain Paper Company, and an officer also of the Winnipeseogee 
Paper Company, of the Cxreen Mountain Pulp Company, of the 
Moimt Tom Sulphite Company, and of the Garvin's Falls Com- 
pany. Finally, when more than a score of the chief paper, 
pulp, and sulphite manufactories of this continent united to 
form the International Paper Company, Mr. Bm'bank was 
prominent in arranging that consolidation, and became an active 
and influential member of the new corporation, which now 
dominates the major portion of the paper trade of the western 
hemisphere. 

In addition to these interests m the paper trade, Mr. Biu'bank 
is a director of the International Trust Company and of the 
Mercantile Trust Company, both of Boston. 

The chief offices of the International Paper Company are in 
New York, and Mr. Burbank accorchngly now makes that city 
his home, and is a member of its Meti'opolitan and Colonial 
clubs, in addition to the Algonquin, Temple, and Exchange clulis 
of Boston and the Westminster Club of Bellows Falls, Vermont. 
He was married in 1865, at Andover, New Hampshu'e, to Miss 
Anna M. Gale, who has boi-ne him four children: Etta M., 
Frederick W., Margaret H., and Harriet Burbank. 




PATRICK CALHOUN 



PATRICK CALHOUN is no exception to the theory that 
great men attain distinction before they are thirty years 
of age. 

He was born at Fort Hill, South Carolina, March 21, 1856. 
His father was Andrew Pickens Calhoiui, the eldest son of John 
C. Calhoun, South Carolina's lirilliant leader and foremost 
statesman. His mother was Margaret Green, daughter of Gen- 
eral Duff Green, a distinguished lawyer and politician, who was 
a great power in the Democratic party during the first presi- 
dential term of Andrew Jackson, and who was generally cred- 
ited with having exceptional influence with that administration. 

With such ancestry, it was only reasonable to expect unusual 
ability in Patrick Calhoun, and it is no exaggeration to say that 
his achievements have more than met his obligations to his line- 
age. His father died in 1865. 

At the close of the Civil War Mr. Calhoun was just nine 
years old, and, at that early age, was handicapped by the dis- 
advantages incident to the loss of family fortune and the de- 
vastation of his native land by the ravages of war. His edu- 
cation was thus unavoidably cut short. He had but one 3^ear of 
high-school training. For the first five years after the war he 
did such work on tlie farm at Fort Hill as a boy could do, and 
when not in the field or the country school-house he was sure 
to be found in his father's library, where he was surrounded 
by the very liest books, which he devoured with an insatiable 
hunger for learning. 

From his earliest l)oyhood he was determined to be a la^^yer, 
and to that end devoted his earliest energies and efforts. In 

•IS 






t^t^\ 



PATBICK CALHOUN 49 

1871 he left the old homestead and went to Dalton, Georgia, the 
home of his maternal grandfather, General Duff Green. Here, 
again, he found a well-stocked library, in which he spent all his 
spare time, absorbing history and the standard works of fiction. 
It was here, and at this time, that a distant relative saw him, 
and, being impressed with his precocity and rare intellectual 
promise, defrayed the expense of the one year of high-school 
education which he received. In 1875 he was admitted to the 
practice of law in Georgia. 

In 1876 he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he promptly se- 
cured a position in the office of an eminent lawyer, and in a few 
months thereafter was admitted to the St. Loviis bar. He lived 
in St. Louis less than two years when his health failed tempo- 
rarily under the effects of incessant application to his books. 
In the summer of 1878 a distinguished lawyer offered him a 
copartnership, provided he would remove to Atlanta, Georgia. 
He accepted the offer, and from that day has claimed Georgia 
as his home. 

Soon after his establishment in Atlanta he became widely 
known throughout Georgia, and at one time was prominent in 
State politics. His first professional partnership in Atlanta was 
of comparatively brief duration. He subsequentl,y foiuided the 
well-known firm of Calhoun, King & Spalding, of which he 
remained the head until his rajjidly widening Inisiness interests 
required his absence from Georgia so much that he withdrew 
from the firm. 

He has always made corporation law a specialty, and along 
that line his greatest professional success has been achieved. 
During his first ten years of practice, by a rapid series of bril- 
liant triiimphs, he became one of the foremost corporation law- 
yers in the South. Before he was thirty years of age he was 
made counsel of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of 
Georgia, which was, at that time, the highest official position of 
the kind in the State. 

His first conspicuous performance in N'ew York was in 1886, 
when he directed the campaign which resulted in taking the 
Richmond & West Point Terminal Railway & Warehouse Com- 
pany out of the hands of the then management and putting a 
new party in control. This may he truly described as the inau- 



50 



PATRICK CALHOUN 



guration of the "commuiiity-of-interest" idea which has since 
become so prevalent in railroad i:)roperties. 

In due course of time the Richmond & West Point Terminal 
Company absorbed the Richmond & Danville, the East Ten- 
nessee, Virginia & Georgia, and the Central Railroad of Georgia 
systems. With this process of amalgamation Mr. CJalhoun 
was prominently identified, and for a considerable time, and 
before he was thirty-three years old, he was General Southern 
Comisel of the entire consolidated system, comprising more than 
nine thousand miles of railroad. 

In 18912, because of an irreconcilable difference between him- 
self and a majority of his associates in the management of this 
vast system, he resigned as General Southern Counsel, and sev- 
ered his connection with the property. At this time, in justifica- 
tion of his course, he wrote an open letter explaining his with- 
di'awal from the Richmond & West Point Terminal Company, 
and predicting wreck and ruin to the railroads controlled by it 
if the policy he had opposed was persisted in. Subsequentl,v, 
the entire system became bankrupt, and was reorganized, Ijy a 
radical readjustment of capitalization and an entire change 
of control, into the present powerful and prosperous Southern 
Railway Comjiany. 

In 1896 Mr. Calhoun discontiniied the active practice of law, 
and turned his attention to the consolidation and development of 
street railway properties in several leading cities. In this great 
work he has had as his intimate associates and fuiancial sup- 
porters, Messrs. Alexander Brown's Sons and the jSIarylaud 
Trust Company of Baltimore, and Messrs. Brown Brothers of 
New York. Aided by these, Mr. Calhoun has not only been able 
to accomplish great undertakings, but has simultaneously made 
himself several times a millionaire. 

His first great achievement after his alliance with the Messrs. 
Brown was the consolidation of all the street railway lines of 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He next repeated this operation in 
St. Louis, and, still more recently, accomplished a like result in 
San Francisco. The plans for these important negotiations, 
even to the minutest details, were made by him. The unim- 
peachable evidence of his conservative judgment and keen ap- 
preciation of intrinsic values is the present prosj)erity and 



PATRICK CALHOUN 51 

prospective profitableness of all these properties, of which he 
foresaw the earning capacity, and accordingly fixed the con- 
solidated capitalization. 

His latest signal success was the formation of the Houston 
Oil & Limiber Company. This corporation, in its vast posses- 
sions and comiDrehensive scope, promises to be one of the most 
valuable and important enterprises in the United States. The 
company o^\^ls nmnerous al)undantly productive oil ^^'ells, and 
over a million acres of virgin pine forests in the State of Texas. 
The testimon,y of experts goes to prove the inestimal^le value of 
the timber lands and the inexhaustible supply of oil. 

Mr. Calhoun is at lu-esent living in Cleveland, Ohio, where he 
has a fortune in real estate knoA\ai as Euclid Heights. The 
property comprises several himdred acres, and is situated on a 
magnificent eminence overlooking the entire city. Wlien he 
bought the property it had no value other than as ordinary 
farm-land. Mr. Calhomi discerned its strategic situation, and 
the possibilities that were attainable through intelligent devel- 
opment. It was then remote and inaccessible from the business 
center of Cleveland. By a wise expenditure of money Mr. Cal- 
houn has transformed these barren fields into a superb residen- 
tial district, where many handsome homes are already built. 
An efficient street-car service i^uts Euclid Heights in touch with 
the heart of the city, and Mr. Calhoun has as a reward for his 
far-sighted judgment and intelligent enterprise one of the most 
beautiful suburbs in the world. 

Patrick Calhomi 's personality is even more interesting than 
the record of his brilliant achievements. From his bo.yhood he 
has been an omnivorous reader, and his memory is i^rodigious. 
This, in itself, makes him a man of broad culture. He has ex- 
cellent mental balance, unusually quick perceptions, and a broad 
and ready grasp of even the most complex subjects. He is elo- 
quent in thought and expression rather than in delivery. His 
style of speaking is scarcely more than conversational. His 
great forcefulness is his power of presentation. His bearing 
bespeaks his gentle birth. He is uniformly courteous, with 
never a sign of conventional mannerism. His capacity for work 
is extraordinary, and his physical endurance seemingly in- 
exhaustible. Wliatever he puts his mind to, he does with his 



52 PATKICK CALHOUN 

whole might, and brooks no interniption imtil the task is 
completed. 

He is still a yonng man, and the future is full of possibilities 
for him. It would not be surprising if, within the next ten years, 
he should find his fortune large enough to warrant his aban- 
doning money-making as an emplojmient, and, in that event, it 
would seem a fitting rounding out of his remarkable career 
if he should return to Geoi'gia, reenter politics, and win for 
himself prominence and distinction worthy of his family name. 

Mr. Calhoun was married on November 4, 1885, to Miss Sarah 
Porter Williams, daughter of George W. Williams, the veteran 
banker of Charleston, South Carolina. They have eight chil- 
dren, named as follows: Martha, Margaret Green, Mildred 
Washington, Sarah Williams, Patrick, George Williams, John 
C, and Andrew Pickens. 




ARTHUR JOHN CATON 



THE name of Caton is strongly and honorably identified with 
the early history and later development of the second city 
of the United States and of the great State of which it is the 
metropohs. It was borne in the last generation l)y John Dean 
Caton, the son of a Revolutionary soldier and a native of Orange 
County, New York. Possessed of a keen intellect, great force of 
character, and indomitable will, he acquired in various schools 
and law offices in his native State a good academic education 
and a first-rate professional training. Then, anticipating the 
wondi'ous growth of the West, he removed to what was then 
the frontier, at the southwest of Lake Michigan. 

Chicago was at that time nothing but a cluster of cabins in a 
swamp, with perhaps two hundred inhabitants. It gave little 
promise of its present metropohtan proportions. Mr. Caton was, 
however, among those who saw some such promise and had faith 
in it. He settled at Chicago, and identified himself with its 
growing interests. When the place became of sufficient impor- 
tance to have a real lawsuit, the first ever held in Cook County, 
Mr. Caton was the first lawyer retained to try it. Again, when 
Chicago became the seat of a regular court, he was judge of the 
first ch'cuit court held there. Thus he grew up with the city, 
and with the State of Illinois, and in due time was appointed to 
a place on the bench of the Supreme Court of the State, which 
he filled with distinction for twenty-two years, for the last six 
years being chief jvistice. 

Judge Caton was only thirty years old when he went upon 
the supreme bench, and so the end of his long term of service — 
which came through his vohnitary resignation — found him still 
at the comparatively early age of fifty-two. He then interested 



S3 



54 ARTHUR JOHN CATON 

himself in the development of telegraph lines and other business 
enterprises in Illinois and adjacent States. Thus he became as 
conspicuous and as successful a figure in industrial and financial 
affairs as he had been in the legal profession. He was mamed, 
in 1835, to Miss Laura Adelaide Sherrill of New Hartford, New 
York, and built for her and his home the first house erected on 
the West Side of Chicago. Later he removed to the city of 
Ottawa, and there made his permanent home for the rest of his 
life. 

Arthur' John Caton, son of Judge and Mrs.Caton, was born 
at Ottawa, Illinois, on January 28, 1851. After passing through 
the common schools he went to Phillips Academy, Andover, 
Massachusetts, where he was graduated in the class of 1869. 
Thence he went to Hamilton College, and was graduated in the 
class of 1873. 

Choosing for himself the profession which his father had so 
greatly adorned, he studied law and was admitted to the bar of the 
State of Illinois. For some years he practised his profession with 
much success. In late years, however, he has laid aside the cares 
of business, and has devoted his attention to the management of 
his ample estate and to the cultivation of the social side of life. 
He is a prominent figure in Chicago society and in the best clubs 
of that city, and is scarcely less well known in New York. He 
is a member of the Chicago and Calumet clubs of Chicago, and 
of the Union League Club of New York. During the years 1898 
and 1899 he was president of the Chicago Club, and directed its 
affairs with conspicuous al)ility and success. 

Mr. Caton was man-ied in 1876 to Miss Delia Spencer of 
Chicago. 






/^r 



lJI (^^-^L 



BENJAMIN riERCE CHENEY 

IN earlier days of the transportation Inisiiiess in the United 
States, when the stage-eoach still competed with the railroad 
and the exj^ress business was in its infancy, Benjamin Pierce 
Cheney, the elder, was a stage-driver in New England. Enter- 
prising and amliitions, and always abreast if not ahead of the 
times, he de^-eloped a large express business, and founded the 
United States & Canada Express Company, which, after a pros- 
perous career of its own, was merged into the American Express 
Company. He also acquired a considerable interest in the 
Wells-Fargo Express Company. In these and other enterprises 
he amassed a fortune estimated at $10,000,000, which upon his 
death was left to his widow,— whose maiden name was Eliza- 
beth Stickney CUapp,— his son, Benjamin Pierce Cheney, and 
his three daughters, Alice, Mary, and Elizalieth Cheney. 

The younger Benjamin Pierce Cheney, son of the foregoing, 
was born in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, on April 8, 1866. 
He w^as sent to the public schools of Boston and Cambridge, and 
was in them an excellent scholar. From the lower schools he 
proceeded to the Brimmer High School and to the English High 
School, and from each of these was graduated. Finally he en- 
tered Harvard University in 1886, and was duly graduated as 
a member of the Class of 1890. 

Mr. Cheney was, as already mentioned, the inheritor of a fine 
fortune. He was not content, however, to settle do\\ai into a life 
of idleness, merely enjoying the wealth his father had amassed. 
Instead he promptly entered business for himself, and soon suc- 
ceeded in greatly adding to his inherited means. He followed 
his father's example by investing in express and railroad eom- 

55 



56 BENJAMIN PIERCE CHENEY 

panies, and also interested himself in various other industrial 
enterprises. He also engaged in banking. His father had been 
a director of the Market National Bank in Boston, and Mr. 
Cheney entered that institution as a olerk and worked there for 
two years, at the end of which time he took his father's place on 
the Board of Directors. Among the other corporations of which 
he is a director are the Boston Safe Deposit & Trust Company, 
the Old Colony Trust Company, the Atchison, Topeka & Santa 
Pe Railroad Company, the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway 
Company, the Mexican Central Railway Comi^any, the North- 
ern Railroad of New Hampshire, the Kansas City, Fort Scott 
& Memi^his Railroad Company, the Manchester Mills, the San 
Diego Land & Loan Company, and the American Drawing Ma- 
chine Company, being also jn-esident of the two last named. In 
addition to these, he has important interests in the American 
and the Wells-Fargo express companies. 

These multifarious bvxsiness interests have so occupied Mr. 
Cheney's attention that he has found no time and developed no 
inclination for political A'entures. He has found diversion in 
various out-of-door si)orts, but principally in yachting, to which 
he is much devoted. He is the owner of the sailing yacht Mei'- 
cedes and of the steam-yacht Jidc, and is commodore of the 
Boston Yacht Clul). In social affairs he enjoys a leading i)lace, 
being a member of the Algonquin Club, the Art Club, and the 
Boston Athletic Association of Boston, and of the Players Club 
of New York. 

Mr. Cheney long ago became personally interested in dra- 
matic affairs, and himself occasionally took j^art in amateur 
performances. It gave cause for no surprise, therefore, when 
in April, 1898, announcement was made of his marriage to Miss 
Julia Arthur, one of the most accomplished and successful of 
the younger actresses on the English-speaking stage. Miss Ar- 
thur was born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and while yet a 
mere child, not in her teens, e\dnced a striking histrionic ability 
and took part in some private theatricals. Later in her girl- 
hood she prepared herself for a professional stage career, with 
long and earnest stud_y. Her first engagement was with the 
emineni actor Daniel Bandmann, in whose company she played 
a number of important Shaksperian and other parts. She next 



BENJAMIN PIERCE CHENEY 57 

went to Germany to study violin music, after which she returned 
to America and reappeared on the stage in Tennyson's "Dora" 
and other plays. She was for some tune leading lady in Mr. A. 
M. Palmer's acbnirable stock company, when it was at the height 
of its fame. Lea^ ing the United States for England for a time, 
she became a leading member of Henry Irving 's great dramatic 
company, in which capacity she established her standing as one 
of the foremost actresses of the day. The catalogue of her parts 
is a long and distinguished one, and it may truly be said that 
from an artistic point of view she adorned them all, while at the 
same time adding to them the inestimable embellishment of true 
and pure womanhood. 

Mr. and Mrs. Cheney have a fine home in Boston, and also a 
smnmer home on the island of Middle Brewster in Boston Har- 
bor, an island owned by ]\Ir. Cheney and two of his friends. 




RICHARD FLOYD CLARKE 

RICHARD FLOYD CLARKE, author of "The Science 
' of Law and Law-making," is a sou of Lemuel C. Clarke, 
a merchant at Columbia, South Carolina, before and during the 
Civil War, and is descended through him from that family to 
wliich belonged John Clarke, who, after twelve years' suing at 
the English court, brought over to Roger WilUams's Rhode 
Island colony the first American charter of religious liberty. 
Mr. Clarke is descended through two lines from Roger Williams. 
His great-gi'andfather Ethan Clarke of Westerly, Rhode Island, 
married a daughter of that Samuel Ward who was Governor 
and Chief Justice of Rhode Island and a member of the Conti- 
nental Congress. On the side of his mother, whose maiden 
name was Caroline B. Clarkson, Mr. Clarke is descended from 
Thomas Boston Clarkson, a wealthy cotton planter of Charles- 
ton and later of Columl)ia, South Carolina, who was descended 
from and named after the celebrated Scotch Presbyterian theo- 
logian Thomas Boston (1676-1732). 

Mr. Clarke was born at Columbia, South Carolina, on October 
14, 1859. In childhood he was brought to New York, and was 
edvicated at the College of the City of New York, from which he 
received the degree of A. B. in 1880, and that of A. M. in 1899. 
From the Law School of Columbia College he was graduated in 
1882 LL. B. cmn laude, and won the first prize in municipal 
law ($250) over twenty-six competitors in a class of more than 
two hundred men. 

Mr. Clarke's family was impoverished by the war, and the 
school and college education he received was his only capital for a 
start in life. He began in June, 1882, as clerk in the law office 
of Olcott & Mestre, on a salary of four dollars a week, which 

58 



RICHARD FLOYD CLARKE 59 

was raised to seven dollars iu the fall. By 1883 be became man- 
aging clerk tbere, and in 1885 a partner iu the fii-m, witb an 
interest guaranteed to be at least $200(J a year. During bis 
first two years at tbe bar be taugbt a law quiz class. In 1886 
be formed a partnership witb Frederick F. Culver, imder tbe 
name of Clarke & Culver, and tbat fli'm is still successfully 
engaged in tbe practice of law, at No. 137 Broadway. 

Mr. Clarke was from 1888 to 1894 chief counsel for the New 
York & New Jersey Bridge Company. He is now, and for 
some time has lieen, counsel for the Uvalde Asphalt Pavement 
Company, the Commercial Investment Company of Porto Rico, 
tbe George A. Fuller Company, Edward J. Berwind, tbe Robert 
Dunlap Estate, tbe National Salt Company, tbe International 
Salt Company, tbe Unadilla Valley Railway Company, and 
numerous other individuals and corporations. 

He is a member of tbe Bar Association of tbe city of New 
York, of tbe University, Delta Kappa Epsilon, and New York 
Yacht clubs of New York, and of tbe Colonial Order of the 
Acorn ; and is a life member of the New York State Bar Asso- 
ciation, of the New York Southern Society, and of the Atlantic 
Yacht Club. He is much interested in yachting, and has owned 
and sailed the sloop Evaclne, the keel schooner Vif, and the fin- 
keel thirty-footer Ar gondii t. 

Mr. Clarke's book, " The Science of Law and Law-making," 
was published by tbe Maemillan Company in 1898, and is 
devoted chiefiy to the question of codification. It has been 
widely noticed on both sides of tbe Atlantic, and has received 
favorable attention from such journals as the London " Times," 
tbe London " Speaker," the Manchester " Guardian," the 
" American Law Review," tbe " Green Bag," and the " Political 
Science Quarterly." 



SNJi) 




ISAAC HALLOWELL CLOTHIER 

IN one of the most prosperous and substantial of American 
cities, Philadelphia, and in one of the most profitable and 
substantial of businesses, one of the names which for many years 
has stood foremost in the mercantile world, as unfaiUngly iden- 
tified with that mingliut^ of enterprise with conservatism which 
is one of the best guaranties of success, and as a synonym of 
the highest integrity, is that of Isaac Hallowell Clothier. For 
nearly a third of a century the firm of Strawbridge & Clothier 
has conducted a dry-goods store in the heart of the shopping dis- 
trict of Philadelphia which has stood in the very forefront of 
that trade, and which occupies one of the largest buildings in 
the world devoted to the retail trade in dry-goods. For a similar 
time the name of that firm has been not only a household word 
with the general public, but also a synonym of integrity and 
trustworthiness in the business world. Of that fh"m Mr. Clothier 
was one of the founders, and for more than a quarter of a century 
he was an active member of it, personally contributing largely to 
its phenomenal success. 

Isaac Hallowell Clothier comes, as his name indicates, from 
the good old stock which settled and built up the city of Phila- 
delphia and made it one of the greatest cities of the Western 
world. His parents, and indeed his ancestors for several genera- 
tions, were members of the Society of Friends. He was born 
in Philadelphia on November 5, 1837, and received in private 
schools the careful, thorough education for which the Society 
of Friends has ever been honorably noted. His school life 
closed at the age of seventeen years, and then, preferring a 
mercantile to a professional career, he entered practical business 
life. 

60 





c^ a^<-^ 




ecu 



ISAAC HALLOWELL CLOTHIER 61 

His first engagement was in a branch of the trade with which 
throughout his entire mercantile career his name has been 
so houorably and so conspicuously identified. The house of 
George D. Parrish & Co. was at that time one of the foremost in 
Philadelphia engaged in the importation of dry-goods. It was 
conducted by men of high character and gi-eat business ability, 
who achieved success by the parsmt of sound mercantile methods, 
and there was and could have been desired no better school for 
a yoimg man than its counting-room and warehouse. Mr. 
Clothier entered the employ of that house at the age of seventeen, 
and there remained six years. In that time he served his em- 
ployers dihgently and to their profit. He was courteous, faith- 
ful to his employers' interests, and unthing in his application to 
whatever duties were laid upon him. At the same time he was 
gaining for himself far greater profits than his salary represented. 
He was receiving a thorough business education, and was becom- 
ing an expert in the diy-goods trade. 

In that first engagement Mr. Clothier was successively pro- 
moted. But it was not his plan to spend his life in the employ- 
ment of others, no matter how high his place and how large his 
salary. Accordingly, in 1861, having by that time thoroughly 
acquainted himself with all the practical details and methods of 
the business, he ventured upon an enterprise of his own. In 
connection with George Morris and Edmund Lewis, he organized 
the firm of Morris, Clothier & Lewis, dealers in cloths. That 
undertaking was crowned with a gratifying degree of success, 
and Mr. Clothier devoted his attention to it for nearly eight 
years. 

His next change of business took him into the establishment 
with which his name is now inseparably connected. It was in 
the latter part of the year 1867 that Justus C. Strawbridge 
approached him with a proposition to enter into partnership 
with him in the retail sale of dry-goods, iu which business Mr. 
Strawbridge was already engaged on a very moderate scale. 
Mr. Clothier accepted the proposition, and the firm of Straw- 
bridge & Clothier was formed on July 16, 1868. 

The business grew rapidly from that date, and soon enlarge- 
ment was necessary ; but the firm wisely stuck to the same site, 
which they had already made a business landmark of the city. 



52 ISAAC HALLOWELL CLOTHIER 

In 1875 the first eulargement was made, an adjoining building 
being then taken into the store. Two years later a second addi- 
tion was necessary; a third. was made in 1878 ; the fourth came 
in 1881, and the fifth in 1882. By this time the store ranked 
among the largest in its line. But the end of its growth was 
not yet. In 1887 another large building was added to it, and 
then it was confidently claimed that the store of Strawbridge & 
Clothier had a larger floor area than any other retail dry-goods 
store on the American continent — a noteworthy distinction, see- 
ing that at least foui' great American cities pride themselves 
iipon the magnitude of their great dry-goods stores. 

From the time the firm of Strawbridge & Clothier was formed 
in 1868 to the close of the year 1894 Mr. Clothier devoted 
almost his entire time, attention, and energy to the affairs of the 
firm with the earnestness which has been characteristic of all 
his life, and he was one of the prime factors in winning for it the 
success which has made it conspicuous in American mercantile 
history. At the same time, of course, he acquired for himself an 
ample fortune, which enabled him to perform many other acts of 
service to the community and to the human race. He has all his 
life been a devoted member of the Society of Friends, attending 
the meeting at Fifteenth and Race streets, Philadelphia. He has 
interested hiniseK deeply and practically in the many benevolent 
and philanthropic works of that Society, and has conti'ibuted 
largely to their promotion. 

Mr. Clothier has for years especially interested himself in the 
welfare of Swarthmore College, that admirable institution of 
higher learning founded and conducted under the auspices of 
the Society of Friends, near Philadelphia. He has long been 
one of the most active of its managers, and he has made to it 
important gifts of money, besides expending upon it his time and 
labor. He has also been active in many other lines of educational 
and philanthropic work. He is a member of the boai*d of trustees 
of the Williamson Free School of Mechanical Trades, of the 
Pennsylvania Museum and School of Industrial Art, of the Free 
Library of Philadelphia, the Merchants' Fund, etc. 

Mr. C'lothier has never sought nor accepted political prefer- 
ment, but has contented himself ■with an exemplary performance 
of the duties of private citizenship. 



ISAAC HALLOWELL CLOTHIER 63 

To the surprise of the entire business community who were 
cognizant of his great business activity, Mr. Clothier retired 
from the firm of Strawbridge & Clothier on January 1, 1895, 
and on the same day was succeeded in his place by his son 
Morris L. Clothier. He was yet well under threescore years of 
age, and in f idl possession of all his mental and physical energies. 
He had, however, attained a large measure of success, and he pre- 
ferred to afford himself leisure for the employment of his pro- 
nounced hterary tastes and for more diversified occupation than 
the pressure of his many business cares had previously allowed. 
It was far from his piu'pose, however, to let himself rust in idle- 
ness, but it was his well-matured intention to change the scope 
and direction of his activities. 

Since his retirement from the great business with which he 
was so long and so successfully identified, Mr. Clothier has been 
sought after to enter the directories of many financial and 
business enterprises. Among those in which he has accepted 
the position of chrector are the Grii'ard Trust Company, the 
Mortgage Trust Company, the Keystone Watch Case Company, 
the iSeaboard Steel Casting Company, etc. 

For a number of years Mr. Clothier and his family have occu- 
pied a beautiful suburban home at Wynne wood, on the main 
line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, near Philadelphia, well known 
as " Ballytore." They have also occupied for a part of each year 
a summer home on Conanicut Island, in Narragansett Bay, 
appropriately named " Harbour Entrance," opposite Newport, 
Rhode Island, on a most conspicuous site widely known to aU 
who fi'equent that region. 

For a few years past, indeed ever since his retirement fi'om 
the diy-goods business in Philadelphia, Mi\ Clothier has been 
well known in New York city as a large investor in real estate, 
conspicuously in the upper Fifth Avenue region, bordering on 
Central Park, where he is one of the largest owners. He has 
also made a number of pm'chases of carefully selected plots of 
ground on upper Broadway, lying along the line of the Under- 
ground Railway (now in course of construction), and it is said 
that he is the largest non-resident owner of New York real estate. 

It has been frequently reported that he was about building a 
residence on Fifth Avenue for his own occupancy during part 



64 ISAAC HALLOWELL CLOTHIEB 

of the year, but tlie report lacks confirmation, especially as Ms 
attachments to tlie city of his birth and lifelong residence are 
very strong. Mr. Clothier spends one day of each week n 
New York, and his tastes and business habits are distinctly 
metropolitan. 





^^/.^-^^^tfj^ 



SAMUEL POMEROY COLT 

THE name of Colt, whicli many years ago attained world- 
wide fame throngh its identification with the revolving 
pistol, was planted in New England at an early colonial period. 
For some generations the family was settled at Hartford, Con- 
necticut, though various memljers of it resided in New York 
city and elsewhere. Two generations ago Christopher Colt was 
the head of the Hartford family. One of his sons was Samuel 
Colt, the inventor of Colt's revolver and founder of the Colt's Pat- 
ent Fh-earms Manufacturing Company. Another son was Chris- 
topher Colt, Jr., father of the subject of this sketch. Christopher 
Colt, Jr., married Theodora De Wolf, a member of the eminent 
Rhode Island family of that name. Her father was General 
George De Wolf, and her uncle, James De Wolf, was United 
States Senator from Rhode Island. Her maternal grandfather 
was Henry Goodwin of Newport, and her great-grandfather was 
William Bradford, Governor of Rhode Island. 

Samuel Pomeroy Colt, son of Christopher and Theodora De 
Wolf Colt, was born at Paterson, New Jersey, on January 10, 
1852, and was named Samuel after his uncle, the great inventor. 
His infancy was spent in Paterson. From five to foiu-teen years 
of age he was in Hartford, Connecticut, where his education was 
begun. From there he went to school at Bristol, Rhode Island, 
and afterward to Anthon's Grammar School, New York. After 
graduating from there he entered the Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology in Boston, where he was gi-aduated in 1873. The 
next year was spent in Europe. In 1874 he entered the Law 
School of Columbia University, New York, being gi'aduated in 
1876. 

Immediately upon completing his course at Columbia, in May 



65 



66 SAMUEL POMEROY COLT 

1876, Mr. Colt was admitted to practice at the bar of New York, 
and in January of the next year was admitted to the bar of 
Rhode Island. At the same time he entered the public service 
of the latter State, being elected a member of the General Assem- 
bly in 1876, and reelected in 1877, 1878, and 1879. From 1879 
to 1881 he was Assistant Attorney-General, and from 1882 to 
1885 Attorney-General, of the State of Rhode Island. He was 
also aide-de-camp on the staif of Governor Lippitt in 1875-77. 
In the Assembly he served on the Committee on the Mihtia in 

1877, and as chakman of the Committee on Corporations in 
1878. 

Mr. Colt has for some years been identified with a number of 
impoi'tant business enterprises in Rhode Island and elsewhere. 
He founded the Industrial Trust Company in 1886, and reorgan- 
ized the National Rubber Company in 1888, and since those dates 
has been president of those cor}»orations. He is also president 
of the National Eagle Bank of Bristol, Rhode Island, vice-presi- 
dent of the First National Bank of the same town, president of 
the Woonsocket Rubber Company of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, 
president of the Goodyear's Metallic Rubber Shoe Company of 
Naugatuck, Connecticut, and a director, secretary, member of 
Executive Committee, and a legal adviser of the United States 
Rubber Company. He is a member of the Hope Club and 
the Squantum Club of Rhode Island. 

Mr. Colt was mamed on January 12, 1881, to Miss Elizabeth 
M. Bullock. Tlieir first child, now deceased, was Samuel 
Pomeroy Colt, Jr., who was born on October 16, 1881. Their 
second, Russell Griswold Colt, was born on October 1, 1882, and 
their third, Roswell Chinstopher Colt, was born on October 10, 
1889. 



si^r^ 





fi^/"-'-" 



y{i6^^jL£L M^ (y^^^^^^^^ 



RUSSELL HERMANN CONWELL 



A MONG the preachers, lecturers, and writers of the United 
-xTjL States of the present generation, one of the most widely 
known and most popular is the Rev. Dr. Russell H. Conwell, 
pastor of the great Baptist Temple in Philadelphia. He comes 
of Enghsh ancestry, and of a family long settled in Baltimore, 
Maryland. His father, Martin M. Conwell, who was born in 
Worthington, Massachusetts, married Miranda Wickham of 
Stoekbridge, Massachusetts, and settled at Worthington, among 
the Bei"kshu'e Hills. He was at first a stone-mason, but became 
later a farmer, cattle dealer, and proprietor of a country store. 
His second son was bom at the family home at South Worth- 
ington, on February 15, 1843, and received the name of Russell 
Hermann Conwell. 

The boy's early education was acquired in a " little red school- 
house" near his birthplace. The family was poor, and there 
seemed little hope of his being able to pursue higher courses of 
study. But when he was fifteen years old his parents decided to 
try to give him the advantages of a course at the well-known acad- 
emy at Wilbraham, Massachusetts. They were able to give him 
only a scanty outfit. He was compelled to provide all else himself. 
For a part of the year he taught in a district school, and at other 
times he worked for wages out of study hoiu"s, and thiis earned 
enough to clothe and feed himseK during two years at Wilbra- 
ham. Thus he prepared himself for college, and in the faU of 
1860 he entered Yale. There he pm-sued the academic and law 
coiu'ses at the same time, in order to reduce his expenses to the 
minimum. In 1862 the Civil War interrupted his studies. He 
left Yale and went to the fi-ont as a captain of infantry. Later 
he served as a staff officer in the artillery branch of the service. 

67 



68 EUSSELL HERMANN CONWELL 

After the war lie resumed his legal studies at the Albany Law 
School, aud upon graduation there went to Minnesota and began 
the practice of his profession. 

His success was prompt and marked. In 1867 he was sent to 
Germany by the Minnesota State government as its Immigration 
Agent, and at the same time served as a correspondent of the 
paper which he had founded in Minnesota, the " Star of the 
North." For several years thereafter he traveled extensively as 
a correspondent of the Boston " Traveler " and the New York 
" Tribune," making a circuit of the globe. He also did much 
lectiiring on his tours, and attained an enviable reputation as a 
platform orator. Afterward he made a successful lecture toiu* 
in England, and in 1870 published a book, " Why and How the 
Chinese Emigrate." He has since published many other volumes, 
including a biography of his friend and traveling companion. 
Bayard Taylor, and a biography of Spurgeon which attained 
a sale of 125,000 copies in foui' months. 

Returning to his native land, Mi\ Conwell began the practice 
of law in Boston, and continued in it successfully for eight 
years. At the same time he added to his reputation as a lec- 
turer and writer. More and more, however, he felt himself 
called to the work of the Christian ministry, and in 1879 he was 
formally ordained to that vocation at Lexington, Massachusetts. 
The Baptist Church was the church of his choice, and in 1882 
he accepted a call to Grace Church, of that denomination, in 
Philadelphia, and removed to that city. 

Immediately after his entry upon its ministry, Grace Chm-ch 
began a career of extraordinary growth and prosperity, both in 
spu'itual aud temporal affairs. Its building was soon found to 
be entu'ely too small for tbe congregations which were attracted 
by Mr. Conwell's eloquence and fervor. Accordingly, in 1891, 
the present edifice, called the Temple, was built on Broad Street. 
It has a normal seating capacity of four thousand, but can 
accommodate five thousand without discomfort. Even this 
great auditorium is, however, inadequate to the requirements of 
the public that flocks to hear Mr. Conwell. For the last six or 
seven years it has been found necessary to hmit the admission 
of strangers to those who have obtained tickets of invitation, 
and it is a frequent occurrence for thousands to be tui^ned away 



EUSSELL HERMANN CONWELL 69 

from the doors simply for lack of room to hold them. In 1882 
the church had two hundred and seventy nominal, but only 
ninety active, members. Within two years it had five himdred 
and seventy-one. In 1888 it had one thousand and ninety-three. 
At the present time it has over three thousand. Dining Mr. 
ConweU's ministry the working people of the chiu'ch have raised 
nearly a milhon dollars for benevolent work of a religious and 
philanthropic character. Among its enterprises is the Temple 
College, for the inexpensive education of the poor. It is housed 
in a fine new building adjoining the Temple Church, and has 
about eight thousand students in its many courses, which range 
from a kindergarten to full coUegiate course leading to the 
baccalam-eate degree in college, law, and theology. Other noble 
institutions are the Samaritan Hospital, which was founded by 
Mr. Conwell, in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Orphans' 
Home, also founded by him. 

Amid these and other activities Mr. Conwell has found time 
and strength to dehver thousands of lectures, making himself 
one of the foremost and most sought after platform orators of 
the age, and to write more than a scoi'e of books of wide circula- 
tion. His home is in Philadelphia. But he has a summer home 
on his father's old farm amid the Berkshire HiUs, where he 
spends some time every year for rest and recuperation, and 
where he maintains a free academy for the young people of the 
hills. He received the degree of LL.B. from the Albany Law 
School, and has since received the degrees of D.D. and LL.D. 
from the Temple College, Philadelphia. 

Mr. Conwell was married in June, 1865, to Miss Jennie P. 
Hayden of Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts, a woman of fine 
culture, who materially aided him in the struggles of his 
early career. She died in January, 1872. In April, 187-4, he 
was again married, to Miss Sarah F. Sanborn of Newton, 
Massachusetts. 



ARTHUR COPPELL 



4 RTHUR COPPELL, member of the New York bankiBg firm 
A of Maitland, Coppell & Co., was born at Claremont, New 
Jersey, a subm-b of New York, on Api-il 10, 1872. His father, 
George Coppell, was long well known as a banker and railroad 
director, and was head of the house of Maitland, Coppell & Co. 
He was born in Liverpool, England, but had spent his active 
business Hfe chiefly in New York. He died on April 19, 1901. 
The wife of George Coppell and mother of Arthiu' Coppell bore 
the maiden name of Helen Hoffman Gillingham, and was born 
in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. 

Arthur Coppell was carefully educated. His preparatory 
courses were pursued at St. John's School at Sing Sing (now 
Ossining), New York. Thence at the age of eighteen he went to 
Princeton University, and was there duly gi-aduated with the 
class of 1894. His intellectual equipment was such as to pre- 
pare him for a professional career, but instead he chose to 
become identified with the business interests conducted by his 

father. 

AccorcUngly, soon after leaving college he entered the office 
of Maitland, Phelps & Co., bankers, in New York, as an employee. 
There he made rapid progress in mastering the details of the 
banking business and of finance in general. Thus he soon 
became fitted for his admission into the firm as a partner. This 
latter step was effected on July 1, 1896, the firm then being 
known, as at present, as Maitland, Coppell & Co. The firm is 
now composed of Messrs. Gerald L. Hoyt, Dallas B. Pratt, 
Arthur Coppell, and Herbert CoppeU, the last two being brothers, 
and sons of the late George Coppell. 

In addition to his share in the banking business of this firm, 



70 




¥- 



AKTHUR COPPELL 71 

Mr. Coppell is a director of the Denver & Rio Grande Raili'oad 
Company, and of the Rio Grande Southern Raih'oad Company. 

Mr. Coppell has held and has soiight no political office of any 
kind. He is a member of a number of prominent social organi- 
zations in and about New York, including the New York Athletic 
Club, the Racquet and Tennis Club, the Riding Club, the Prince- 
ton Club, the City Midday Club, the Englewood Golf Club of 
Englewood, New Jersey, and the St. George's Society. His 
office and banking house are at No. 24 Exchange Place, and 
his home is at No. 127 East Fifty-seventh Street, New York. 

Mr. Coppell was married at Grace Church, on December 12, 
1899, his bride being Miss Mary Stewart Bowers, daughter of 
John M. Bowers, the well-known lawyer of New York. 

A daughter was born to them on December 31, 1901, and was 
named after her grandmother, Susan Bowers Coppell. 




CHARLES COUNSELMAN 



PROMINENT among the enterprising business men who have 
made Chicago the business center of the West is Charles 
Counsehnan, one of the leaders of the Chicago Board of Trade. 
He comes of an old Maryland family, which was prominent in that 
colony before the Revolution made it a State. Both his grand- 
fathers were soldiers in the War of 1812. His earhest American 
ancestors came from Germany. His father was Jacob Counsel- 
man, a contractor and builder of the Northern Central Railway 
of Baltimore. 

Mr. Counselman was born in Baltimore on December 25, 1849, 
and was educated in the public schools of that city, and after- 
ward studied law. The latter study was pursued in the oflfice of 
Judge Edward Hammond, at Ellicott City, Maryland. Law- 
office work did not, however, agree with his health, so he gave it 
up, and entered the employ of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 
in its freight department, for a year. 

In the year 1869, being then twenty years old, Mr. Counselman 
went to Chicago to seek his fortune in that rapidly growing city. 
His first work there was in a subordinate place in the office of 
Eli Johnson & Co. His salary was small, and prospects of 
advancement were not the best. Biit he made the best of the 
place, and gained valuable experience and confidence in his own 
powers. Next he took to selling oil on commission, for Chase, 
Hanford & Co. But it was not in him to remain in subordinate 
places long. Accordingly in 1871 he opened an office of his own 
as a commission merchant, and at the same time became a mem- 
ber of the Chicago Board of Trade. 

From that time forward Mr. Couuselman's career was steadily 
and splendidly successful. He shared many of the reverses of 



CHARLES COUNSELMAN 73 

trade, but was able to endure them without embarrassment. He 
opened many years ago a branch office in New York, and estab- 
hshed a system of private telegraph wires connecting his Chicago 
office with New York, Cleveland, Buifalo, Rochester, Boston, 
Providence, Baltimore, Washington, Richmond, and other cities. 
In 1879 he built a large warehouse at the Union Stock Yards, in 
Chicago, where he conducts a large business in the storage of pro- 
visions. He is one of the chief owners of the Rock Island Grain 
Elevators in Chicago, which have a capacity of two million 
bushels, and he maintains about a hundred and fifty agencies 
throughout Kansas, Nebraska, and Iowa for the purchase of 
grain to supjjly his trade. He is interested in the South Chi- 
cago Elevators, and is the senior partner of the firm of Counsel- 
man & Day, stock-brokers. Imbued with a profound faith in 
the future greatness of Chicago, Mr. Comiselman long ago began 
systematically investing in real estate in that city, and is now an 
extensive landowner there. In 1883 and 1884 he built the great 
Counselman Building, wliich is one of the landmarks and archi- 
tectm-al ornaments of the city. 

Mr. Counsehnau has held no political office, and taken no part 
in pohtics beyond the duties of a private citizen. He is a mem- 
ber of various social organizations, among which may be men- 
tioned the Chicago Club, the Union League Club of Chicago, the 
Washington Park Club of Chicago, the Onwentsia Club, the 
Midlothian Club, and the Chicago Athletic Club. 

He was mamed, on October 7, 1875, to Miss Jennie E. Otis, 
daughter of Judge Otis of Chicago, and has two children. Miss 
Edith Counselman and Charles Counselman, Jr. 

His long and honorable connection with the business interests 
of Chicago, his high standing in business and society, and the 
admirable traits of his personal character make Mr. Counselman 
one of the most truly representative citizens of that city. 



THOMAS CRUSE 



THERE are few contrasts of land and scene more striking 
than that between the emerald hills and plains and aziu'e 
lakes of Ii'eland, and the rugged mountain ranges of the Western 
United States; and between the easy-going pastoral and agi'i- 
cultiu'al life of the one, and the strenuous gold-seeking struggle 
that incessantly prevails in the other. Yet in more than a single 
case has one born in and accustomed to the former land and 
scenes adapted himself to and become masterful and highly suc- 
cessful in the latter. In no case, however, has this been done 
more notably than in that of Colonel Thomas Cruse, the ranch 
and mine king of Montana. 

Thomas Cruse is still well within the psalmist's hmit of three- 
score years and ten, having been born in 1836. His native place 
was the village of Lissnadaha, in the County of Cavan, Ireland. 
There he spent his boyhood and his early years of manhood, for 
such as he become men before they leave their teens. He was 
twenty years old when, in 1856, he emigrated from Ireland. He 
came to New York, and for a few years remained in the meti'op- 
olis, engaged in various occupations. It was a time of war, of 
trial, and of social and political unrest in the United States, but 
by no means unpropitious for the earnest fortune-seeker. The 
great gold fever of 1849 had run its coui^se long before, but had 
not failed to leave its marks upon the land. California was stiU 
the land of gold, and every day saw new "strikes" made in it 
and in Nevada and the adjacent Temtories. The outlook there 
attracted Mr. Cruse, and in 1863 he went thither, making the 
then arduous and perilous trip across the plains in a stage-coach. 
On his arrival he quickly became interested in mining, and 
showed himself to be made of the stuff that succeeds in that 



74 




O'^^*: 



THOMAS CBUSE 75 

business. The next year he cUmbed the Sierras eastward, and 
settled in Virginia City, Nevada, a place reminiscent in name of 
a town in his own native County Cavan. Thence he proceeded 
to Idaho, where he also engaged in mining ventures. At last, in 
1866, the great gold excitement in Montana broke out. He was 
quick to take advantage of it, and to hasten to the new land of 
promise. 

In Montana Mr. Citise achieved a greater success than he had 
known elsewhere, and for a number of years he settled down to 
the making of a fortune amid the ore-laden mountains. The 
story of his enterprises is largely the history of the State of 
Montana, to the development of which he has contributed more 
than almost any other man. Conspicuous among his mines may 
be named, however, two with which his name is particularly 
identified. One of these is the great Cruse Mine, which he dis- 
covei'ed in 1875 and of which he is still the proprietor and oper- 
ator. This is one of the richest mines in all that enormously 
rich region, and has yielded to Mr. Cruse in a single year what 
most men would deem a handsome fortvine. The other is the 
famous Drum Lumon Mine. He discovered it in 1876, and 
developed it with great success. For a number of years he 
operated it profitably, taking a goodly fortune from it each year. 
Finally, on November 11, 1882, he sold it to a syndicate of 
English capitalists. He received a princely sum for it, but the 
purchasers received good value for their money, for tlie mine 
stiU ranks among the most productive and profitable in the 
State. 

In addition to these, Mr. Cruse has been and still is interested 
in numerous other mining properties, aU of which have con- 
tributed to his financial successes, and he has long ranked among 
the leading figures in the Western world. 

His attention has, however, not by any means been confined 
to the drawing of wealth from the hidden recesses of the moun- 
tain ranges. The pastoral industry is a gTcat one in Montana, 
and at an early date he engaged in it with characteristic energy 
and shrewdness. In his hands it, too, has proved highly profit- 
able. He is now the owner of nearly fourteen thousand acres 
of grazing land, ixpon which are maintained thirty thousand 
head of sheep, ten thousand head of cattle, and hundreds of 



76 THOMAS CRUSE 

well-bred horses. He was also founder and is president of the 
Cruse Savings Bank of Helena. 

Colonel Cruse — he bears the title in the State troops — is 
to-day ranked among the two or three richest men in the State 
of Montana, if indeed he is not the richest of them all ; and 
Montana is a State that owns a number of enormously rich men. 
He has natm-ally l^ecome a commanding figure in the affairs of 
the State, political, social, and business. Such influence has 
come to him without his seeking it, through virtue of his wealth, 
character, and native leadership, for he has not sought for pre- 
fennent. He has held no political office, however, nor any 
public place save that indicated by his military title. 

Colonel Cruse was married at Helena, Montana, in January, 
1886, to Miss Margaret Carter. One child, a daughter, Mary 
Margaret, has been bom to him, who is the very hght of his life, 
and upon whom he lavishes all the gifts within the reach of his 
enormous wealth- His home is at Helena, but he is no stranger 
to New York, making fi'equent and protracted visits to the 
metropolis, and occupying, when he does, a sumptuous suite of 
apartments at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. He is an ever- wel- 
come member of the select circle of friends whom he has gathered 
about him, for the native quality of the man is never lost be- 
neath the gold of the millionaire. 






/ 



JOHN CUDAHY 



JOHN CUDAHY, one of the most daring and successful 
operators of the Chicago Board of Trade, shares Irish origin 
with many of his adopted countrymen in the United States. 
He was horn on November 5, 1843, near the town of Callan, in 
County Kilkenny, Ireland, the son of Patrick and Elizabeth 
Cudahy, and one of their seven children. When he was six 
years old the family removed to the United States, and settled 
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the city identified with John Cudahy's 
earlier business entei-prises. There Patrick Cudahy engaged in 
the business of a broker on a small scale, and afterward opened 
a packing-house, in which latter John and his brothers worked 
and learned the business. 

John Cudahy received his education in the public schools of 
Milwaukee, and then, at the age of fifteen years, entered busi- 
ness life as an employee in the packing-house of Edward Roddis, 
where his earlier training in his father's house served him well. 
Later he held a responsible place in the packing-house of Layton 
& Co. for three years. Following this, he was appointed inspec- 
tor of i^ro visions for the city of Milwaukee, and afterward became 
foreman of inspectors for the Board of Trade — appointments 
which attested the esteem in which his knowledge of the pack- 
ing business was held. For two years he was associated m 
business with Nelson Van Kirk and Peter McGeogh, and later 
with John Plankington, the last-named being one of the leaders 
of the packing trade in Milwaukee. 

It was in 1876 that Mr. Cudahy left Milwaiakee for Chicago. 
In the latter city he formed a connection with E. D. Chapin, a 
relative of Philip D. Armoiu-, and they opened a packing-house 
at the Union Stock Yards under the name of Chapin & Cudahy. 

77 



78 JOHN CUDAHY 

Mr. Cudaliy managed the packing-house, while his partner looked 
after business on 'Change. After five years Mr. Chapin retired, 
and the firm became Cudahy & Steever, and increased its busi- 
ness. At a later date Mr. Cudahy coudvicted a large packing 
business on his o^^al sole account, and also became a heavy spec- 
ulator in the market. He and Sydney A. Kent, Norman B. 
Ream, and N. S. Jones were known as the " Big Fom%" and for 
several years were conspicuously successful. Mr. Cudahy re- 
mained in the market long after the retirement of the others, 
however, and became far better known for his extensive and 
daring enterprises. 

Now and then, of course, his enterprises met with disaster. 
Thus in 1893 he undertook to "corner" the provision market in 
the Chicago Board of Trade, l)ut came to grief, and failed for 
more than one million five hundred thousand dollars. Tliis was, 
however, a mere incident in his career. The wiping out of a for- 
tune of several millions did not discourage him. He gave his 
notes for all of his indebtedness which he coidd not pay in cash, 
and honored all the notes in full at their maturity. Within five 
years from liis faihu*e he was a rich man again, perhaps richer 
than before, and his credit and honor remained unimpaired. 

About 1891 Mr. Cudahy sold out his Chicago packuig-house 
to an Enghsh syndicate known as the International Packing 
Company. A year later he secured control of the chief packing- 
house and the stock-yards at Louisville, Kentucky, and also 
opened large packing-houses at Nash\dlle, Tennessee, at Fort 
Madison, Iowa, and one at Milwaukee. He was one of the 
founders of the town of Cudahy, near Milwaukee, is interested 
in gold-mines at Fort Cudahy, Alaska, operates a line of steam- 
ers on the Yukon River, and has many other business interests 
in Chicago and elsewhere. 

Mr. Cudahy married a daughter of John O'Neill, a prominent 
business man of Chicago, and has two sons and two daughters. 
His home is on Michigan Avenue, Chicago, and he has a summer 
residence at Mackinac. 




MARCUS BAXrYo 



MARCUS DALY 



1% /rARCUS DALY, " copper king " and patron of the turf, was 
i-T_L a conspicuous member of that goodly company of men 
who have come to the United States from the Old World with 
little or nothing in worldly goods, aaid have here, through dint of 
energy, enterprise, and active shrewdness, won amjjle fortunes. 
He was born in the village of Bally jamesduff, in County Cavan, 
Ireland, in 18-t2, and at the age of thu-teen years came to America 
to seek better opportunities of advancement than his native land 
seemed to afford. He landed at New York, and for a year or 
two lived in or near that city, working in a Brooklj-n morocco 
factory. The outlook was unpromising, and he seemed to be 
doomed to a life of humble tb'udgery. 

A few years before, however, the discovery of gold in Cali- 
fornia had electrified the world, and had started westward that 
vast army of fortune-seekers, of whom the many failed and only 
the few succeeded, and yet who served as the founders of more 
than one great and rich commonwealth beyond the Mississippi. 
Young Daly was robust and powerful in frame, and aml)itious 
and adventiu'ous in spu'it. Nothing was more natural, then, 
than that he should be drawn into the westward-flowing tide, and 
should make his way to the land of golden promise. He went 
as a worker, not as a capitalist, and for some years diiidged dili- 
gently wdth pick and shovel. His labor was repaid with some 
tangible profits. But what was still more important was the 
knowledge of the mining industry which he acquired by diligent 
study. From California he made his way back to Nevada, and 
thence to Utah. 

The great tm-n in the tide of his affairs came in the later 
1870's. At that time he went to Montana, and, in connection 

79 



80 MARCUS DALY 

witli the Walker Broth ei's of Salt Lake City, purchased, oper- 
ated, and afterward sold his share of the Alice Mine near 
Butte. He then became associated with James B. Haggin, who 
was already a prominent and potent mining capitalist, and was 
sent by him to Montana to represent Mr. Haggin and Senator 
Hearst of California in looking for and securing promising 
mining properties. He acquired a number of mines and exten- 
sive tracts of timber land, and finally got possession of the now 
famous Anaconda Mine. He bought this latter from its original 
owner for only thirty-five thousand dollars, for Messrs. Hearst 
and Haggin, reserving, however, a share in it for himself as their 
partner, and paying for it with the pi'oceeds of the sale of the 
Alice Mine in Butte. He supposed the Anaconda to be a silver- 
mine. So it was, yielding a good profit from that metal. But 
it soon was found to be a copper-mine also, and a copper-mint 
so rich as to outrank in value most silver- and even gold-mines 
on the continent. It has produced many millions of dollars' 
worth of copper, and still ranks among the foremost copper- 
mines in the world. 

Mr. Daly thus became many times a millionaire, and was 
enabled to indulge his tastes in other directions than making 
money. His chief hobby was horse-raising and -racing. He 
founded the Bitter Root Stock Farm, Montana, one of the most 
important stock-farms in the United States, and there bred and 
trained many noteworthy horses. He had there the famous 
horse Hamburg, the winner of many races and the sire of many 
fine racers. He purchased Hamburg from John E. Madden, for 
forty thousand and one dollars, the odd dollar being paid to save 
Mr. Maddeu'S boast that he would not sell the horse for forty 
thousand dollars. Mr. Daly not only raced his horses on Western 
tracks, but brought them to New York and made his colors 
famihar and successful on the great metropolitan courses. For 
ten years he was one of the most prominent, most successful, 
and the most liked of all the patrons of the tm-f. At the time 
of his death he was the owner of several hundred thoroughbred 
horses, including runners, pacers, and trotters, which were sold 
in New York a few months after his death. 

Mr. Daly was a Democrat in politics, but never held pubhc 
office. He played an important part in Montana politics dming 



MARCUS DALY 81 

the later years of his life, as the opponent in party management 
of his former partner, William A. Clark, with whom he had long 
had a bitter controversy over some business affairs. While 
Montana was still a Temtory, Mr. Clark songht election as dele- 
gate to Congress. Mr. Daly opposed him, and the result was 
the election of Thomas H. Carter, a Republican. When Mon- 
tana became a State, in 1889, Mr. Clark was put forward as a 
candidate for United States Senator, but was defeated through 
the opposition of Mr. Daly. The same thing occurred again in 
1893. Once more in 1899 there was a similar struggle. This 
time Mr. Clark succeeded in getting himself elected, but the 
Senate Committee on Elections returned a report imfavorable to 
him. Before the action of the committee was enforced, however, 
Mr. Clark resigned. 

Mr. Daly was married to a sister of the wife of Mr. Clark's 
brother, and with her and their cliildi'en made a home for a part 
of the year in New York. The children are Marcus H. Daly, 
Margaret Daly, Mary Daly, and Harriet Daly. The New York 
home was at the Netherland Hotel. In the fall of 1900 the fam- 
ily made a new home in a fine mansion on Fifth Avenue, but 
Mr. Daly's health was so far impau-ed that he was unable to be 
removed to it. He made a long and heroic fight for life against 
incurable disease, but finally succumbed on November 12, 1900. 
His funeral was from the new home, which in life he had not 
occupied, the services being held at St. Patrick's Cathedral, and 
his remains were interred in Greenwood Cemetery. 




CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 

IT is probable that if at almost any time in the last twenty 
years the question has been asked who was the best- 
known and most popular citizen of New York, or indeed of the 
United States, a large plurality of replies, given both here and in 
foreign lands, would have been, " Chauncey M. Depew." Nor 
would the selection have been in any respect an unworthy one. 
In business and in politics, in public and in private, in society 
and in philanthropy, — indeed, in all honorable activities of human 
life, — Mr. Depew has come into contact with the American public 
to a greater extent than almost any other man of the age, and 
above most Americans of this or any generation is fairly entitled 
to the distinction of being regarded as a representative American 
and as a citizen of the world. 

Chauncey Mitchell Depew was born at Peekskill, New York, 
on April 23, 1834, the son of Isaac and Martha (Mitchell) Depew. 
His father was of Huguenot origin, descended fi'om a family 
which had settled at New Rochelle two centuries ago, and was 
himseK a man of remarkable physical prowess, mental force, and 
spiritual illumination. He owned countiy stores, farms, and 
vessels on the Hudson. Martha Mitchell, Mr. Depew's mother, 
was of English Puritan ancestry, a member of the distinguished 
New England family which produced Roger Sherman, William 
T. Sherman, John Shennan, William M. Evarts, and George F. 
Hoar; a woman of grace and kindliness, who exerted a strong and 
enduring influence upon the character of her gifted son. The 
boy was educated at Peekskill Academy and at Yale College, and 
was graduated from the latter in 1856. Then he studied law at 
Peekskill in the ofi&ce of William Nelson, and was admitted to 
the bar in 1858. 

82 



CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 83 

In the year of his graduation from Yale Mr. Depew cast his 
first vote. It was for John C. Fremont, the Repubhcan candi- 
date for President of the United States. Two years later he 
was a delegate to the Republican State Convention. In 1860 he 
was a stump speaker in behalf of Abraham Lincoln. His first 
public office came to him in 1861, when he was elected to the 
State Assembly. He was reelected in 1862, and was Speaker pro 
tem. for a part of the term. In 1864 he was nominated by the 
Republicans for Secretary of State of the State of New York, and 
was elected by a majority of thirty thousand. In this campaign 
he established his place as one of the most effective popular ora- 
tors of the time. At the end of his term he declined a renomina- 
tion, and, after holding the commission of United States minister 
to Japan, given to him by President Johnson, for a few months, 
he retired from politics. 

Mr. Depew had already attracted the attention of Commodore 
Vanderbilt and his son, William H. Vanderbilt. He was ap- 
pointed by them, in 1866, attorney for the New York and Harlem 
Railroad Company. Three years later he became attorney for 
the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, and afterward 
a director of that company. His influence grew with the growth 
of the Vanderbilt system of railroads, and in 1875 he became gen- 
eral counsel for the entire system, and was elected a director in 
each of the hnes comprised in it. 

Mr. Depew was a candidate for Lieutenant-Grovernor on the 
Liberal Republican ticket in 1872, and shared the defeat of his 
ticket. In 1874 he was chosen Regent of the State University, 
and one of the commissioners to build the Capitol at Albany. He 
naiTOwly missed election as United States Senator in 1881, and 
declined, in 1885, to be a candidate for the same office. 

His influence in railroad circles had been constantly increasing 
meanwhile, and in 1882, when William H. Vanderbilt retired 
from the presidency of the New York Central, Mr. Depew was 
elected second vice-president, succeeding James H. Rutter in the 
presidency three years later, holding that place until 1898, when 
he succeeded Cornelius Vanderbilt as chairman of the board of 
directors of the entire Vanderbilt system of railroads. 

Mr. Depew was a candidate for the Presidential nomination at 
the National Republican Convention of 1888, and received the 



84 CHAUNCEY MITCHELL DEPEW 

solid vote of the State of New York, and on one ballot ninety- 
nine votes. At the National Repubhcan Convention of 1892 Mr. 
Depew was selected to present the name of President Han-ison, 
In Jannary, 1899, Mr. Depew was elected a United States Senator 
from the State of New York. His appearance at Washingi:on 
commanded much personal interest, and he soon won recognition 
as a Senatorial orator. 

Mr. Depew is still Regent of the Univei'sity of the State of New 
York, an active member of the St. Nicholas Society, the Holland 
Society, the Huguenot Society, and the New York Chamber of 
Commerce ; a director of the Wagner Palace Car Company, the 
Union Trust Company, the Western Union Telegraph Company, 
the Equitable Life Assiu'ance Society, St. Luke's Hospital, the 
Niagara Bridge Company, the American Safe Deposit Company, 
the New York Mutual Gras Light Company, and of other indus- 
trial companies and corporations too numerous to mention. He 
was for seven years president of the Union League Club, and on 
retiring was elected aii honorary life member. For ten years in 
succession he was elected president of the Yale Alumni Associa- 
tion, and he is now president of the Republican Club. 

Mr. Depew married Elise Hegeman on November 9, 1871, and 
has one child, a son, Chauncey M. Depew, Jr. Mi-s. Depew died 
on May 7, 1893. 

Mr. Depew has long been known as foremost among the hu- 
morous and ready public speakers of the time, and there are none 
New-Yorkers love better to hear. He has been the orator on 
tlu'ee great national and international occasions — the unveiling 
of the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, the centennial 
celebration of the inaugiu-ation of the first President of the United 
States, and the opening of the World's Fan* at Chicago. He was 
selected by the Legislatiu'e to deliver the oration at the centen- 
nial celebration of the formation of the Constitution of the State 
of New York, the centennial of the organization of the Legis- 
lature of the State of New York, and the services held in New 
York in memory of President Garfield, General Sherman, Gen- 
eral Husted, and Governor Fenton. He also delivered the ora- 
tions at the unveiHng of the statues of Alexander Hamilton in 
Central Park, of Columbus in Central Park, and of Major Andre 
in Sleepy Hollow. 





§.^Q^^kV^q^ 



GUY PHELPS DODGE 



GUY PHELP8 DODGE, the president of the American 
Wood Fireprooflng Company, comes of several families 
which for many generations have been honorably conspicuous 
in the affairs of this country. His father was the Rev. D. Stuart 
Dodge, D. D., an eminent Presbyterian minister and president 
of the Board of Home Missions of that chm'ch. The Dodge 
family in America is descended from Peter Dodge of Slopworth, 
Cheshire, England, who was one of Edward I's most valiant 
captains in his Scottish campaign. In a later generation Wil- 
liam Dodge migrated to this country and planted the family 
here, among the Pm-itan pioneers in New England. Still later 
in the line was William Earl Dodge, the eminent New York 
merchant and philantlu'opist, who was the father of the Rev. 
Dr. Dodge and grandfather of the subject of this sketch. The 
maiden name of Mr. Dodge's mother was Ellen Ada Phelps, and 
she was a member of a family long well known in this country. 
It is descended fi'om John Phelps, a barrister-at-law of Glou- 
cestershire, England, and clerk of the court which tried Charles 
I. The late Wilhani Walter Phelps, the well-known financier 
and diplomat, was an uncle of Mr. Dodge — his mother's brother. 
Of such ancestry and parentage Guy Phelps Dodge was born 
in New York city on February 21, 1874. He was sent to school 
at first at the Westminster School, now the Mackenzie School, 
at Dobbs Ferry, New York, and later to the Lawrenceville 
School, at Lawrenceville, New Jersey, then under the direction 
of its famous organizer, Dr. James Cameron Mackenzie. At the 
latter school he was pi'epared for college, and he went thence to 
Yale University, where he was graduated in the class of 1896. 



85 



8G GUY PHELPS DODGE 

Since leaving college Mr. Dodge's business attention has been 
given chiefly to the affairs of the American Wood Fireproofing 
Company of Nevf York, of which he is the president. The 
present era is emphatically the age of fii'eproof construction of 
buildings and ships. The world has learned that it is perfectly 
feasible to construct edifices of material which will not burn, 
and thus to assure in advance their practical immunity against 
destruction or serious injury by fire. Obviously, stone, brick, 
and metals are such materials. But it is scarcely possible or 
satisfactory to make buildings or vessels wholly of them. For 
many purposes wood is, as it has ever been, the most desirable 
of building materials. A process, therefore, which will make 
wood fireproof must be of incalculable convenience and value in 
the industrial world, and it is such a process which Mr. Dodge's 
company is applying. 

Mr. Dodge has taken no part in politics beyond that of a 
private citizen. He is a member of clul)s in and about New 
York, including the Lawyers', National Ai"ts, Union, Racquet, 
Strollers', Alpha Delta Phi, and Ardsley. 

He was married at Ardmore, Pennsylvania, on October 11, 
1900, to Miss Mary Aborn Rhodes, a lady of distinguished 
American ancestry. She is tenth in descent from John Tilly, 
and ninth in descent from John Howland, who both came to 
this country in the Mayflower. She is fourth in descent from 
Thomas McKean, who was one of the signers of the Declaration 
of Independence, president of the Continental Congress in 1 781, 
chief justice of Pennsylvania in 1786, and Governor of that State 
in 1799. 

Mr. and Mrs. Dodge make their home in New York city. 
They have one child, a daughter, who bears the name of Mary 
Rhodes Dodge. 




THOMAS DOLAN 

UIE changed conditions of humanity from ancient times to 
the present day are in no way more strongly indicated than 
in the change effected in the character of leadership. The whole 
story is told in the contrast between the conspicuous men of 
former ages and those of to-day. 

The names which live in ancient history are those of war- 
riors, conquerors, tyrants, whose activities were largely de- 
voted to the oppression and spoliation of their fellow-men. 
The men in our time who contribute most largely to the shap- 
ing of current history, and who are leaving the deepest marks 
upon the record of the world, are those who have happily been 
named "captains of industry"— men who exert leadership in 
industry and commerce, who promote the march of civiliza- 
tion and the prosperity of their fellow-men. The careers of 
such men are often more marvelous in the measure of their 
achievements than any romantic tale of the days of chivalry, 
and the influence which they exert upon the trend of human 
affairs is comparable with that of the greatest of conquerors and 
monarchs. A noteworthy example of this type of man is found 
in the subject of the present sketch. 

Thomas Dolan, long a conspicuous leader of the industrial 
world, and a forceful figure in political and social life, is a native 
of the Keystone State, with whose vast industries and other in- 
terests he has for many years been intimately associated. He 
was born on October 27, 1834, in Montgomery County, adjoining 
the city of Philadelphia. His education, or such part of it as 
was to be acquired in a school-house, was had in local schools, 

87 



88 



THOMAS DOLAN 



and was acquired with studious diligence. Having done witli 
it, he went to Philadelphia to begin a business career. He was 
then about seventeen j^ears old, keen-minded, energetic, and am- 
bitious, and compelled by circumstances to be self-reliant. 
His first engagement was as a clerk in a large connnission 
house, dealing extensively in fancy knit goods, such as shawls, 
scarfs, etc., and hosiery. In that place he spent ten years, un- 
marked with striking incidents, but profitable in experience 
and in knowledge of business methods, and forming an appro- 
priate prelude to his after career and its vast success. 

Those were the days "before the war," when the factory sys- 
tem of America was just beginning to grow into its present enor- 
mous estate, and when the United States was upon the threshold 
of the vast industrial development which has in these later years 
made it foremost among the nations of the world. The "Ameri- 
can System" of a protective tariff was not yet fully established, 
but was near at hand. Invention and enterprise were active, 
and doors of great opportunity were open on every hand to those 
who were shrewd enough to perceive them, bold enough to enter 
them, and strong and steadfast enough to take up and to per- 
severe with the work which lay beyond. Young Mr. Dolan ap- 
preciated these circmnstanees, and prepared himself to deal 
with them; with what effectiveness his after career has shown. 

During his ten years' service as a clerk he performed the 
duties of his jilace with scrupulous fidelity, serving his employ- 
ers as faithfidly as he wo\dd have served himself. Yet he had 
no thought of making that employment a finality, or of remain- 
ing permanently in a subordinate place. He planned, rather, 
to found and to become the head of a business house of his o-mi, 
and saved all possible money to serve as capital for such an un- 
dertaking. He was also alert in watching for a fitting opportu- 
nity. His time came in 1861, when he was still only twenty- 
seven years of age. He then opened a small estal)lishmeut for 
the manufacture of knit goods, of the same general class as those 
which he had been handling for ten years in the connnission 
house, and with which he felt particularly familiar. 

He did not seek a new field of activit.y, but started his humble 
manufactory at the corner of Hancock and Oxford streets in the 
city of Philadelphia, occupying a part of the very same ground 



THOMAS DOLAN 89 

upon which his present large works stand. It was a small con- 
cern, and to the casual observer gave little promise of develop- 
ment into one of the largest of its kind in the world ; but it had 
in its founder and head the most essential element of success. 

Never, probably, in the industrial history of the United 
States, or of the world, was comi)etition more keen than that 
with which Mr. Dolan had to contend in the early years of his 
independent manufacturing career. 

He was surrounded by older concerns, at the head of which 
were men of far wider and longer experience and of great 
wealth. It was the time when industrial expansion and enter- 
prise were rising to the high-water mark. It was necessary to 
be alert and active if one was merely to keep pace with the in- 
dustrial army. To outstrip competitors and to become a leader 
was a task requiring the very highest gifts, and one from which 
a young man with little capital might well have shrunk. But 
Mr. Dolan Icnew what he was about. He had not overestimated 
his own resources of skill and energy, and in the outcome of his 
apparently venturesome undertaking he was not disappointed, 
though many of his rivals and critics were probably somewhat 
surprised. 

From the beginning of his venture he manifested the qualities 
which always make for and generally win success. He was sys- 
tematic, prudent, far-seeing, and tremendously in earnest. He 
was master of every detail of his business. Above all, he was a 
man of flawless integrity. These qualities more than counter- 
balanced the heavy odds which in other particulars were cast 
against him. The labors and difficulties before him were ar- 
duoi;s. But he was successful in dealing with every task that 
came to his hand, even in meeting the rivalry of other older 
and apparently more powerful concerns. Year by year his 
business increased in extent and profits, and such increase was 
made by him the basis of still further extension and greater 
strengthening of his position in the industrial world. 

One by one his rivals were outstripped by him, through his 
untiring energy and unfailing shrewdness, imtil he became the 
acknowledged leader of his chosen lines of trade. From time to 
time his works were enlarged, and the scope of his business was 
made more comprehensive or was altered to suit changing con- 



90 THOMAS DOLAN 

ditions. For Mr. Dolan has always been particularly keen in 
the timeliness of his efforts, adapting himself to the changing 
requirements of the market and to the pviblic demand, however 
capricious it may be. 

For five years Mr. Dolan found it most profital)le to confine 
his manufactures to the lines of goods with which he began 
work. Then in 1866 he changed his activities to the manufac- 
ture of "Berlin shawls," and supplied a great demand for them, 
with much profit to himself. 

For six years that trade continued prosperous, but in 1872, 
with another change of popular fashions, it declined. There- 
upon he gave up Berlin shawls and began the manufacture of 
worsted materials for men's wear, and, a little later, of fancy 
cassimeres and goods for women's cloaks. These were standard 
goods, the demand for which was little liable to fluctuation. Ten 
years later, in 1882, he gave up altogether the manufacture of 
knit goods, and devoted his works exclusively to the production 
of fabrics for men's wear. In this last-named industry he is 
now engaged, altliough tlie factories still heav their old name of 
the Keystone Knitting ]\lills. 

Mr. Dolan began his business alone, and through all its 
changes and groA\'th, to this day, has been its head. As its di- 
mensions increased, however, he foiind it expedient to associate 
various partners with himself. Accordingly the establishment 
is now known as that of Thomas Dolan & Co. His present part- 
ners are Rpiear Williams, Jr., Charles H. Salmon, and Joseph 
P. Truitt. These four gentlemen are all experts in the business, 
and each has his especial department of the great establishment 
to look after, besides contributing to the general counsel for the 
whole. 

The textile manufacturing industry is, of course, one of the 
foremost in the world, and JNIr. Dolan is one of its recognized 
leaders. He is thus one of the world's great "captains of indus- 
try." That might be reckoned enough for one man's business 
ambitions and energies, biit it is l)y no means the compass of 
Thomas Dolan 's. In one of the greatest industrial cities of the 
M'orld he is actively interested in a multiplicity of its interests, 
financial, manufacturing, and commercial, as well as in various 
great enterprises elsewhere. Thus, besides being the head of the 



THOMAS DOLAN 91 

firm of Thomas Dolan & Co., he is president of the Quaker City 
Dye AVorks Company, of the United Gas ImproA^ement Com- 
pany, and of the Brush Electric Light Company. He is likewise 
a director of the Philadelphia Traction Company, of the great 
Cramp & Sons' Ship & Engine Building ComjDany, of the ]\Ietro- 
politan Street Railway Company of New York, of the Consoli- 
dated Traction companies of New Jersey, the Distilling Com- 
pany of America, and of various other corporations. Until a 
few years ago he was identified with the Merchants' National 
Bank of Philadelphia. In recent years he has taken an active 
interest in the affairs of the Philadelphia & Reading Railroad 
system, one of the greatest industrial concerns in the State of 
Pennsjdvania, and was one of the most efficient supporters of 
President McLeod's policy of development of the vast coal re- 
sources of that corporation and the jiromotion of its general 
welfare. 

Mr. Dolan has so long been conspicuously connected with 
manufacturing and other industries in the city of Philadelx^hia 
that his first identification is naturally with them. He is, how- 
ever, equally prominent in the direction of great enterprises in 
other places. 

Thus, he is a director of the Broadway & Seventh Avenue 
Railway Company of New York city, which was one of the most 
important of the old horse-car lines, operating one of the prin- 
cipal lines running up and down to^vn in the central part of New 
York. He is also a director of the Central Park, North & East 
River Railroad Company in the same city, which long operated 
the belt lines running completely around the lower part of the 
city, along the water front, and across the city at the southern 
end of Central Park. He is a director of the Twenty-third 
Street Railway Company, perhaps the most important of all 
the cross-to^^^l lines in New York, and also of the Twenty-eighth 
and Twenty-ninth Streets Crosstown Railway Company, also 
operating important lines. These four companies still maintain 
distinct organizations, but are all, with others, operated prac- 
tically by the IMetropolitau Street Railway Company, of which 
H. H. Vreeland is ]')resident and of which Mr. Dolan is a direc- 
tor, along with "VV. L. Elkins, P. A. B. "VVidener, and other promi- 
nent financiers. He is a director of other street-railway com- 



92 THOMAS DOLAN 

panies, including the Philadelpliia Electric Company, the North 
Jersey Street Railway Company, and the Union Traction Com- 
pany. 

He is a director of the Continental Tobacco Company, which 
is one of the chief constituent corporations in the great Consoli- 
dated Tobacco Company. Of this company James B. Duke is 
president, and among Mr. Dolan 's fellow-directors are Anthony 
N. Brady, W. L. Elkins, Pierre Lorillard, Oliver H. Payne, 
Thomas F. Ryan, and R. A. C. Smith. 

The Electric Storage Battery Company, of which he is a direc- 
tor, has offices in both Philadelphia and New York, and has 
among its officers and directors, besides Mr. Dolan, Herbert Lloyd, 
W. L. Elkins, P. A. B. Widener, George D. Widener, and other 
well-known business men. The Welsbach Company of Phila- 
delphia, New York, and Gloucester City is the corporation which 
controls the Welsbach system of incandescent lighting for both 
gas- and oil-lamps. It has as subsidiary companies the Wels- 
l)ach Light Company and the Welsbach Commercial Company. 
Its directors, besides ]\Ir. Dolan, are Samuel T. Bodine, Walton 
Clark, W. W. Gibbs, Lewis Lillie, Sidney Mason, Randal Mor- 
gan, and B. W. Spencer. 

The HaA'ana Traction Company is another corporation of 
which Mr. Dolan is a director, the field of operations of which 
is amply indicated by its name, and in which he is associated 
with a nmnber of active and enterprising men. 

The corporation of Cramp & Sons' Ship and Engine Building 
Company, with which he is identified as a director, is well kno\vn 
as one of the greatest steaniship-1)uilding concerns in the world. 
It has constructed many noteworthy merchant vessels and a 
large proportion of the best ships of the United States na\^, 
besides some of the crack ships of foreign naAdes and a fleet of 
yachts and other craft. Among Mr. Dolan 's associates in that 
company are Charles H. Cramp, Edwin S. Cramp, Samuel 
Dickson, Clement A. Griscom, Morton McMichael, and Henry 
Seligman. 

The Fidelity Trust Comi:)any and the San Luis Valley Land 
and Mining Company are likewise among the companies of 
which Mr. Dolan is a director. Taken all together, the concerns 



THOMAS DOLAN 93 

in which he is interested make such a list as few other business 
men in the United States can rival. 

Besides his purely business associations, Mr. Dolan is conspic- 
uously connected with various general trade organizations in- 
tended to advance the common interests of all members, and has 
given to them much time and laljor and the fruit of his long and 
rich experience. Years ago he was elected vice-president of the 
National Association of Wool Manufacturers, one of the most 
important and influential industrial organizations in the coun- 
try. He was also elected president of a Philadelphia associa- 
tion of similar character and aims. This latter was, to a certain 
extent, the forerunner of the Manufacturers' Club of America, 
of which in turn he was made president. 

The Manufacturers' Club of America, with which Mr. Dolan 
has been so closely identitied, was formed by a coming together 
of leading men in all important lines of manufactures through- 
out the United States, for their mutual benefit and the general 
conservation and promotion of industrial interests. Mr. Dolan 
was looked to by all his associates as the best man to stand as 
a representative of all, and he was accordingly mianimously 
elected to the presidency of the organization. Year after year, 
by unanimous request, he accepted reelection mitil the smmner 
of 1894. At that time, in justice to his many other interests, he 
insisted upon retiring, and Robert Dornau was elected to suc- 
ceed liini. But his fellow-industrialists could not permanently 
spare him from their coimcils, and so, on January 24, 1895, he 
was unanimously elected president of the Association of the 
Manufacturers of the United States at the convention held at 
that time at Cincinnati, Ohio. 

Mr. Dolan has long been interested in a highly effective man- 
ner in various benevolent enterprises for the general welfare 
of society. He has especially concerned himself with the art 
and industrial art institutions of Philadelphia, and has been 
among their wisest counselors and most generous benefactors. 
He was one of the founders of the Philadelphia School of Design 
for Women, and has been one of its directors from the beginning 
of its beneficent career. He is also a trustee of the Pennsyl- 
vania Musemii and School of Industrial Art. These institu- 



94 THOMAS DOLAN 

tions, which do so much to promote the artistic welfare and in- 
dustrial prosperity of the city as well as to open a profitable 
calling to worthy aspirants, owe much to Mr. Dolan for his 
bounty and his labors. He is also a trustee of the University 
Hospital of Philadelphia, and takes an active interest in the 
work of that institution. These are only a few of the enter- 
prises for public weal to whose prosperity and progress Mr. 
Dolan has materially contributed, and in which he takes a deep 
and constant interest. 

In club life in Philadelphia and elsewhere, Mr. Dolan is well 
known. He is not a "club man" in the sense of belonging indis- 
criminately to a great number of social organizations, and sur- 
rendering to them and to their affairs all his leisure time and 
a great share of his interest and attention. He belongs, how- 
ever, to a nmnber of the foremost clubs of Philadelphia, and in 
each of them he is a forceful figure, contributing largely to their 
material welfare and to the soundness of their general manage- 
ment. For several years he was vice-president of the Union 
League Club, which holds a foremost place in Philadelphia club 
life. 

In private life Mr. Dolan enjoys respect, confidence, and af- 
fection comparable with the success he has attained in business 
affairs. He has a tine house on Rittenhouse Square, in one of 
the best quarters of the city of Philadelphia, which has long 
been the center of delightful domesticity and of much refined 
social entertainment. His family occupies a prominent place in 
the social world of Philadelphia. 

In the United States the "business man in politics" has in 
late years been an increasingly potent factor. He has also been 
an increasingly beneficent factor. For this the reasons are ob- 
vious. This is preeminently a nation of business men, and only 
business men are therefore truly representative of the people. 
There are no hereditary legislators here, and no leisure class, 
and the class of "professional politicians," who have no visible 
means of support save such as they can get from politics, are 
becoming more and more odious. Moreover, it has long been 
evident that the industrial and conunercial prosperity of the 
nation depends in no small degree upon certain features of its 
governmental policy. It is no unworthy thing for polities to 



THOMAS DOLAN 95 

aiui at promoting the business welfare of the people. Such cir- 
cumstances and considerations have led many prominent busi- 
ness men to take an active interest in political affairs, though 
not always necessarily as office-holders, and it was thus that 
Mr. Dolan was constrained to do likewise. 

It was only natural that a man of such force of character and 
of so wide-spread influence in social and business life should be 
looked to for a large measure of political leadership and service. 
Mr. Uolan has been a Republican ever since the foundation of 
that party, being attached to it from principle and conviction. 
His life work, first as an employee and later as an extensive 
emplo_yer of labor, has taught him the value of the American 
system of protection to domestic industry, and the necessity of 
maintaining a somid and honest system of currency, which shall 
at all times possess a standard value and ))e recognized as valid 
at par in all of the markets of the world. 

He has never been an office-seeker, and has indeed held only 
one i^olitical office. The latter was that of Presidential Elector- 
at-large for the State of Pennsylvania, to which he was elected 
in 1888, and in which he cast a vote for Benjamin Harrison for 
President and for Levi P. Morton for Vice-President of the 
United States. He has frequently Ijeen spoken of as a candidate 
for the office of Mayor of the city of Philadeljjhia, where a Re- 
publican nomination is generally equivalent to election, and has 
also been deemed a probable choice of the State Legislature for 
the office of United States Senator. He has, however, never en- 
couraged any of these suggestions, and has doubtless preferred 
to remain in a station which, though private, is no less potent 
for the advancement of the interests of the party than a high 
public office. 

It will be remembered that in the important and exciting 
Presidential campaign of 1888, in which the tariff sj^stem was 
the chief issue, an Advisory Board was formed of prominent 
Repul)li("an business men and statesmen, to sujiervise, assist, 
and direct the operations of the National Republican Com- 
mittee. Mr. Dolan was one of the most important factors in 
that movement, and it was, indeed, he who chiefly conceived and 
organized it and conti'ilnited to its success. His knowledge of 
individual men, his judgment of human nature, his wide expe- 



96 THOMAS DOLAN 

rience, and his executive ability were of great service in that 
year to the Republican National Committee, and to the party 
throughout the nation, and contributed largely to the success 
of the Republican party in the general elections. 

Again, in the campaign of 1896, when the currency rather 
than the tariff was the issue, and the credit and honor of the 
nation were at stake before the menace of a depreciated coinage, 
he took a prominent and potent part. His interests in the main- 
tenance of a sound and stable currency led him to fight with all 
his energy against the scheme for the free coinage of silver at 
the sixteen-to-one ratio, and for the maintenance of the gold 
standard of value. He was informally associated with a notable 
group of Rei)iiblican statesmen and lousiness men representing 
A'arious business interests in various parts of the coimtry, among 
whom were Philetus Sawyer, C. W. Fairbanks, D. O. Mills, 
Redfield Proctor, and Nelson W. Aldrich. These men not only 
aided in STipplying the necessary financial means for conducting 
the campaign, but gave as well their time, labor, and judgment 
unremittingly to the dissemination of sound principles and to 
the promotion of the Republican cause. None of them was more 
efficient than Mr. Dolan, and to none more than to him was due 
the victory for honest money and National credit which was 
achieved in the election of McKinley and Hobart as President 
and Vice-President and a Republican and honest-money ma- 
jority in 1)otli branches of Congress. 




LOREN NOXON DOWNS 

BOTH Briton and Breton were the ancestors of Loren 
Noxon Downs, and for many generations before his birth they 
were settled in New England. On the paternal side they came, 
generations ago, from Brittany, and settled in what is now the 
State of VeiTnont, whence they afterward moved to Amesbury, 
Massachusetts. On the maternal side they were English, and 
came to this country in the Mayflower^ making their final settle- 
ment in what was then the pro\ance and is now the State of 
Maine. 

The descendant of such progenitors, Loren Noxon Downs was 
born on November 22, 1852, at Shelburne Falls, New Hampshire, 
the son of Loren and Martha A. Downs, his father being a rail- 
road contractor. He received his education at Lewiston, Maine, 
and in a private school in Boston, and then gave his attention to 
the business in which his father had been engaged, and indeed 
in association with his father. For ten years after leaving 
school he was employed in railroad and telegraph construction 
work, with his father, and achieved a gratifying degree of suc- 
cess. When the telephone was brought into practical and gen- 
eral use he recognized the great possibilities of that invention, 
and promptly tiirned his attention to it. From 1880 to 1885 
he was connected with numerous telephone companies in New 
England, and was prominently concerned in their consolidation 
into the New England Telegraph and Telephone Company, of 
which corporation, upon its formation, he became general mana- 
ger. He also Ijecame general manager of the Erie Telegraph 
and Telephone Company. 

The telephone, however, was by no means the ultimate tri- 
umph of invention in electrical science. Another equally im- 

&7 



98 LOREN NOXON DOWNS 

portant development of electric engineering was soon found 
in electrical traction for railways, and Mr. Downs was prompt to 
see the great promise thereof. Accordingly in 1890 he entered 
the electric-railway business, and thi-ee years later, seeing a 
larger and more promising line of operation in the West, went 
to Michigan in pursuance of it. In that State he built and 
operated several electric railways, and others, also, in the States 
of Indiana and Illinois. 

At the present time Mr. Downs is president of the General 
Philadelphia Railway Company, the Philadelphia & Bristol 
Railway Company, the Michigan Traction Company of Kala- 
mazoo, Michigan, and the Lansing City Electric Railway Com- 
pany of Lansing, Michigan. He is also a director of the St. 
Louis & Belleville Electric Company of St. Louis, Missom'i, 
and of the Lewisburg, Milton & Watsoutown Railway Com- 
pany of Philadelphia. He is also officially connected with sev- 
eral other roads in New York and Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Downs has taken no especial part in political matters, 
beyond exercising the functions of a private citizen. Neither 
is he conspicuously indentitied with clubs or other social organi- 
zations. 

Mr. Downs was married at Saratoga Springs, New York, on 
June 5, 1894, his bride being Miss Mary Van Buren BaiTctt, 
daughter of the Hon. W. C. and Mary Barrett. 




■^■0^. 







ANTHONY JOSEPH DREXEL 

Tj^INANCIERS have, from the earUest times, beeu leaders of 
-L the business world. The moment man l^ecomes sufaciently 
civilized to abandon mere barter and to use a circulating medium 
as a means of exchange of values, the banker becomes an essen- 
tial to the business community. His place of business is at once 
a safe depository and an exchange. It is likewise a place whence 
financial assistance for legitimate enterprises may be derived. 
Of the banker it may be said, as indeed of all other business 
men, that according to his will and practice he may be an aid 
and a blessing to the community, or an incubus upon it. The 
names of the money-changer and usurer have long been odious. 
They signify merely a selfish perversion of the functions of a 
financier. On the other hand, the name of banker itself has 
long been a synonym not only of wealth but of integrity and 
security, and of a benevolent attitude toward industry and 
commerce. The true financier is he who finds his own profit in 
advancing the profits and general well-being of the entire com- 
munity. Among such men have beeu not only some of the 
greatest leaders of enterprise, but also some of the foremost 
benefactors of the race. By a proper use of money they have 
encom\aged and assisted business in a thousand ways, and thus 
have brought prosperity to innumerable other men. By the 
practice of wise and prudent methods they have served as checks 
and balance-wheels for the steadying of the general business 
world and the guiding of it into safe and prosperous paths. Out 
of their own bounty they have, moreover, been generous bene- 
factors of the community, endowing and promoting institutions 
and enterprises for education, charity, and all good purposes. 
The famdy to which the subject of this sketch belongs stands 



100 ANTHONY JOSEPH DREXEL 

conspicuous equally for success in financial enterprises and for 
a wise and beneficent use of its opportunities and resoiu'ces for 
the promotion of the general welfare of the city, Ctate, and 
nation. 

The family of Drexel, which has long held a commanding 
place in the financial and social world, was planted in this coun- 
try in 1817 hy Francis Martin Drexel, who came hither from 
Dombirn, in the Austrian Tyrol, to escape the mihtary conscrip- 
tion. He was a portrait-painter, and for twenty years practised 
his art with success in Philadelpliia and in Mexico and South 
America. Then, in 1837, he founded in Philadelphia the now 
famous banking house of Drexel & Co. In that enterprise he 
was highly successful, and at his death in 1863 he left to his 
two sons, Anthony J. and Francis A. Drexel, one of the best 
financial businesses in the United States. The Paris branch, 
known as Drexel, Harjes & Co., was founded in 1868, and the 
New York house, Drexel, Morgan & Co., in 1871. Thencefor- 
ward the history of the fii'm was lai'gely the history of American 
finance. It has been one of the foremost and decidedly most 
trustworthy negotiators of government, corporation, and railroad 
securities, and has earned for its members ample fortunes. An- 
thony J. Drexel, the son of the founder, was noted for his lead- 
ership in all worthy public movements in Philadelphia and for 
his munificent gifts to educational and charitable institutions. 
He founded the Drexel Institute at a cost of more than $1,500,- 
000, and afterward gave to it for specific purposes more than 
$600,000 more. He also joined his friend the late George W. 
ChOds in founding the Childs-Drexel Home for Aged Printers, 
at Colorado Springs, Colorado. He left $100,000 for the German 
Hospital in Philadelphia, and $1,000,000 for an art-gallery and 
museum. He married Miss Ellen Roset, daughter of John 
Roset, a leading merchant, who bore him two sons and three 
daughters, and he died at Carlsbad, Austria, on June 30, 1893, 
" full of years and honors." 

The second son of Anthony J. Drexel is the subject of this 
sketch, Anthony Joseph Drexel, the second of the name. He 
was born in Philadelphia on September 9, 1864, and was first 
sent to school in Paris, France. Next he attended school at 
Seven Oaks, in Kent, England, and finally at St. John's School, 



ANTHONY JOSEPH DREXEL 101 

Ossiniug, New York. Theucefoi'ward his education was cou- 
ducted in the Philadelphia banking house of Drexel & Co., 
which he entered at the age of sixteen years as a clerk. For 
five years he thus served and studied the details of the business. 
Then he was admitted to an interest in the business and had a 
power of attorney for two or three years. In 1887 he was made 
a full partner in the house, and in all three houses, and remained 
in active business therein until after his father's death in 1893, 
when he retired. He has since then been an executor and 
trustee of his father's estate, but he has had no other business 
interests. 

Mr. Drexel has interested himself much in the fine sport of 
yachting. He first owtied the 125-foot steam-yacht Avenel, 
and then the Margarita /, 221 feet long. He next built the 
Margarita II, 279 feet long, which he sold to the King of the 
Belgians. Finally he built his present yacht, the Margarita, III. 
This is a twin-screw yacht of 5000 horse-power and 323 feet 
long, and, hke its predecessor, was designed by George L. Wat- 
son of Glasgow, and was built in Scotland. 

Mr. Drexel has not greatly interested himself in politics, and 
has held no public office save that of aide-de-camp on the staff 
of Governor Pattison of Pennsylvania, with rank of lieutenant- 
colonel, in which capacity he served for four years. He is a 
member of various prominent social organizations, including the 
Philadelphia and Rittenhouse clubs of Philadelphia, the Union, 
Metropolitan, and Knickerbocker clubs of New York, and White's 
Club, St. James's Street, London. 

He was married, in September, 1886, to Miss Bita Ai-mstrong 
of Baltimore, a daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John A. Armstrong, 
who has borne him three sons and two davighters : Anthony J. 
Drexel, Jr., the third of the name, Margaretta Drexel, John 
Armstrong Drexel, Mae Sarah Drexel, and Louis Clapier Norris 
Drexel. 




HARRISON IRWIN DRUMMOND 



T 



HE story of popular tastes and habits tells of few so 
remarkable developments of custom as that which is 
to be observed in the case of the " weed," tobacco. Every 
school-boy is famihar with the story of Sir Walter Raleigh's 
introduction of it into England, and the deluging he got 
from a startled servant who never before had seen fire issu- 
ing from mouth of mortal man. Well known, too, is the 
story of Eang James's famous " Counterblast " against the grow- 
ing practice. Pro and contra, the literature of tobacco has 
become tremendously voluminous, with seriousness and hght- 
ness commingled. Nevertheless, the " weed " has conquered. Its 
use has become, in all parts of the world, more general — we 
might say more nearly imiversal — than that of any other article, 
and the growing and preparation of it for popular consumption 
has become one of the foremost agricultural and manufacturing 
industries of the countries concerned. The country most con- 
cerned is, of course, the United States. Tobacco became known 
to the civilized world only on the discovery of America, and 
became an important article of commerce only when the North 
American colonies were developed. That original primacy has 
been amply maintained, and to-day the United States produces 
not only more tobacco than any other country, but, at least so 
far as commerce is concerned, more than all other countries of 
the world put together. At the present time the yearly produc- 
tion probably exceeds five hundred million pounds. It is to 
be believed, likewise, that the United States consumes more 
tobacco than any other coimtry. It exports, it is true, about 
$35,000,000 worth a year of its own prodvxct; but at the same 
time it imports from other lands more than $15,000,000 worth a 

102 









-'•«^<^^«??i^^^^^^' 



Wm^,.. 



'W 



^S-e^.iU.^ O^ ^^'W^;^^^^^ 



HABKISON IRWIN DRUMMOND 103 

year. We may safely reckon this, then, to be the foremost land 
of all in the production, manufacture, and use of the fascinating 
" weed." 

Conspicuous among the leaders in the tobacco industry in 
the last generation was James T. Drummond, president of the 
Drummond Tobacco Company of St. Louis, Missouri. He was 
a native of that city, and spent most of his life there. His family 
was of Scotch origin, and had first settled in Virginia, in early 
years. His wife, Bethia H. Drummond, also came of an old 
Virginia family. Mr. Drununond was, until his death in 1897, 
one of the most truly representative men in the tobacco trade of 
the United States. 

Hamson Irwin Dmmmond, son of James T. and Bethia H. 
Drummond, was born at Alton, Illinois, near St. Louis, on 
December 14, 1868. He was educated carefully, not only for 
business, but in the general branches of liberal culture. At fh'st 
he attended the Wyman Institute, at Upper Alton, Illinois. 
Thence he went to the Episcopal Academy of Connecticut, at 
Cheshii'e, Connecticut. Finally he entered Yale University, 
where he was gi'aduated in the class of 1890. 

On leaving the university, Mr. Drummond went to work in 
the most direct and practical fashion. He had made up his 
mind to follow the vocation in which his father had attained so 
marked a degree of success, and he determined to do so in the 
most thorough and systematic manner. Accordingly he entered 
his father's tobacco factory in the humblest capacity, as a day- 
laborer, and thus remained there for two years, learning the 
details of the business from the bottom upward. Next he 
became an assistant superintendent, and filled that place for a 
year. Havmg thus served his apprenticeship, he was prepared 
for higher duties, and was elected vice-president of his father's 
company, the Drmumond Tobacco Company of St. Louis, Missouri, 
which office he held until his father's death in 1897, when he 
was elected to succeed the latter as president. Mr. Drummond 
is also a director of the Merchants' Laclede National Bank, and 
of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company, both of St. Louis. 
He was for a time first vice-president of the Continental Tobacco 
Company, and a director of the American Tobacco Company, 
but gave up both those places in the latter part of 1899. 



104 HARBISON IRWIN DRUMMOND 

Mr. Drummond's prominence in business and in society, and 
his personal qualities, marked him for political preferment, if he 
cared to accept it. In 1896 he was nominated by the Democratic 
party as its candidate for Representative in Congress for the 
Eleventh Missouri District, but declined the nomination, and has 
held no political office. 

He is a member of numerous social organizations, among 
which may be mentioned the University, New York, New York 
Yacht and Larchmont Yacht clubs of New York, and the 
University, St. Louis, St. Louis Country, and Kinlock clubs 
of St. Louis, Missouri. 

Mr. Drummond was married in 1892 to Miss Mary W. Prickett 
of Edwardsville, Illinois. Two children have been born to them: 
Harrison Drummond and Greorgiana Drummond. 






'^^^^Ay/^ 



'^a.^\^- 



JOHN FAIRFIELD DRYDEN 

JOHN FAIRFIELD DRYDEN, president of the Prudential 
Insiu"iuce Company of America, was born on August 7, 
1839, at Temple Mills, near Farmington, Maine. The family is 
one of antiquity, and represents a stock ancient and honorable. 
The parents of Mr. Dry den, John Dry den of Massachusetts, and 
Elizabeth Butterfield Jennings, his wife, who was a native of 
Maine, were of old English and New England yeomanry stock. 
The Drydens originally came fi-om Northampton, England, and 
included in their family relationships John Dryden, the poet. 
The Butterfields came here as early as 1640. John Dryden, the 
father of the subject of this sketch, was a farmer by occupa- 
tion. He gave his son the best education that the local schools 
afforded. 

Young Diyden early evinced a desire to make the law his life- 
work. With this object in view", he entered Yale College in 1861. 
Excessive devotion to study gi-eatly impaired his health, how- 
ever, and, just as he was about to be givaduated, with every 
prospect of high honors, he was forced to leave the university 
and seek physical recuperation. 

The faculty of Yale College, at the annual commencement in 
June, 1900, as a triljute to Mi\ Dryden's genius and ability, rein- 
stated him to the same place in his old class, and conferred upon 
him the degree of M. A. 

Mr. Dryden next became interested in life-iusm'ance, and 
made an exhaustive study of it. From theory he passed into 
practice, and became a life-insxu-ance agent. About the time of 
the close of the War of the Rebellion, a report made by Eliziu- 
Wright, Insurance Commissioner of Massachusetts, embodied 
a reference to indi;strial insurance as practised in England, but 

105 



106 JOHN FAIBFIELD DEYDEN 

expressed doubt whether a similar system would succeed in this 
country. It required courage to diifer from Mr. Wright, but 
Mr. Drydeu had this courage. He devoted several years to 
study and preparation, and then, fixing upon Newark, New 
Jersey, as his center, started, in 1873, to put his plan to a prac- 
tical test. Along with several leading citizens of Newark, he 
secured the passage by the New Jersey Legislature of an act 
authorizing him and others to form and operate a society caUed 
the Widows' and Orphans' Friendly Society, but during the two 
years of its existence all that was done by it was in the nature 
of an experiment and preparation foi- the real work that was to 
be done by the permanently organized institution, the Pruden- 
tial Insurance Company of America. This company was estab- 
hshed on October 13, 1875. Since that date the history of the 
Prudential has been an ever-increasing record of progress and 
prosperity, until it has reached proportions that place it in the 
fi'ont rank of the greatest institutions of the kind in the world. 

Mr. Dryden is either an officer or a director in the following, 
besides being president of the Prudential : the Fidelity Trust 
Company of Newark, New Jersey ; the Western National Bank 
of New York; the United States Casualty Company of New 
York; the Atlantic Trust Company of New York; and the 
North Jersey Street Railway Company of New Jersey. He is a 
stockholder in various other concerns. Among the clubs that 
he is a member of are these : the Union League and Lawyers' of 
New York ; the Essex County Country Club, New Jersey ; the 
Newark Athletic Club ; the Somerset Hills County Club, New 
Jersey ; the Bloomingrove Park Association, New Jersey ; and 
the Pike County Club, Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Dryden married Miss Cynthia J. Fairchild, at New Haven, 
Connecticut, in 1861. He has two children : Forrest Fairchild 
Dryden and Mrs. Susie Dryden Kuser. 

Mr. Dryden has been all his life an adherent of the Republican 
party, but has until lately practically kept aloof from politics. 
In 1896 he so far broke this rule as to allow himself to be chosen 
as a Presidential elector at large in New Jersey. In 1898 he 
was urged to enter the race for United States Senator, but 
dechned. Finally, in January, 1902, he accepted election as 
United States Senator. 



HIPOLITO UUMOIS 



RELATIONS between the United States and Cuba have long 
been intimate, both commercially and socially. The prox- 
imity of the island to our shores, the wide-spread and constant de- 
mand for its pi'oducts in our markets, the delightful character of 
its chmate, and the hospitable nature of its inhabitants, have all 
contributed to the substantial union of Cuba with this country 
in all dominant interests. Many citizens of the United States 
have made their homes and invested then* capital in Cuba, and 
many Cubans have similarly established themselves here. 

Conspicuous among the latter may be mentioned Hipolito 
Dumois of Santiago, Baracoa, Banes, and New York. He comes 
of a French family of high standing, which settled some gener- 
ations ago at Santiago de Cuba, estal)lished extensive coffee 
plantations, and amassed a fortime. His parents were Juan 
Simon Dumois and Luisa Dumois of Santiago de Cuba, the 
former a leading planter. He was born at Santiago on August 
13, 1837, and lived there until twelve years of age. Then he was 
brought to New York and entered St. John's College, at Ford- 
ham. A period of six years in college gave him an excellent 
education, and familiarized him fully with the English language 
and with American manners and customs, and, indeed, put him 
into close sympathy with this countiy and its institutions. Then 
he returned to Cuba and began business life at the age of nine- 
teen, as cashier of the American Ore Dressing Company, at 
Cobre, near Santiago. There he remained until the dissolution of 
the company, when he engaged in his father's old occupation of 
coffee-raising. In 1870 he removed to Baracoa and engaged in 
the raising of bananas. 

Mr. Dumois removed the headquarters of his business interests 

107 



108 



HIPOLITO DUMOIS 



to this city in 1884, establishing himself at No. 41 South Street, 
where his office still is, in the center of the tropical fruit trade 
district of New York. He had important banana farms at Banes, 
Cuba, which he operated profitably until General Weyler, in the 
last Cuban war, stopped the exportation of fruit to this country. 
From 1896 until the end of 1898, therefore, that part of his busi- 
ness was perforce suspended. It has now been reiistablished. 
Meantime he became interested in the Boston fruit plantations 
in Santo Domingo. When the operation of the Banes planta- 
tions was stopped by the war he transformed his proprietorship 
into a stock company, which was combined with the United 
FiTiit Company, and of which he and his brother, F. S. Dumois, 
are directors. Mr. Dumois is president of the Banes Fmit Com- 
pany, of New York, Boston, and Banes, president of the Do- 
minican Fruit Company, of New York and Puerto Plata, Santo 
Domingo, and president of the Sania Fruit Company, of New 
York and Sama, Cuba. 

Ml'. Dumois is a member of the New York Club, and of various 
other organizations, and is to be ranked as a genuine New-Yorker. 
He was married, in 1865, to Miss Maria F. Mitchell, daughter of 
Henry Mitchell of Baltimore, who was then living at Santiago 
de Cuba. They have one son, George P. Dumois, who is asso- 
ciated with his father in business, being treasurer of the Banes 
Fruit Company, at Banes, Cuba. 

The Cuban war for independence, and the intervention of the 
United States and final expulsion of the Spanish, have had, as 
ah-eady intimated, an important effect upon the industries m 
which Mr. Dimiois is engaged. The first effect of war was, of 
course, disastrous. With the return of peace, new conditions 
are being established, and the new order of things in Cuba, and 
the new relations between that island and the United States, 
will profoundly affect trade in, it is confidently expected, a 
favorable manner. In the bettered state of affairs it is to be 
anticipated Mr. Dumois and his companies will amply participate. 



f= 




[/|^,A,f^^^ ^ L / ^-^-^>-T<^s.<'i.'<^'^^^ 



CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS 



AMONG the prominent and forceful leaders of the Repiibhcan 
XJL party in the United States Senate is Charles Wan-en Fair- 
banks, senior Senator from Indiana. 

Mr. Fairbanks was born on a farm near ITnionville Center, 
Union County, Ohio, on May 11, 1852, and attended the common 
schools of his native place. Thence he went to the Ohio Wes- 
leyan University at Delaware, Ohio, and was graduated from 
that institution in 1872 in the classical covu'se. He studied law, 
and was achnitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of Ohio in 
1871, and in the same year removed to Indianapohs, where he 
has since practised his profession. 

The first public office he ever held was that of United States 
Senator. For several years before his election to the Senate he 
was a recognized leader of his party in Indiana. He was chau-- 
man of the Indiana Republican State Convention in 1892, and 
again in 1898. He was a delegate at large to the Republican 
National Convention at St. Louis in 1896, which nominated 
Wilham McKinley for the Presidency, and was temporary chair- 
man of the convention. He was chosen unanimously by the 
Republican caucus of the Indiana Legislature as candidate for 
United States Senator in January, 1893. He received the entire 
vote of his party in the Legislature, but that body, having a 
Democratic majority, elected David Tm-pie. Mr. Fairbanks 
was, however, elected to the United States Senate by the Indi- 
ana Legislature on January 20, 1897, receiving a majority over 
all on a joint ballot, the opposing candidates being Daniel W. 
Voorhees, Democrat, and Leroy Templeton, Populist. Senator 
Fairbanks was chairman of the Indiana delegation to the Re- 
publican National Convention at Philadelphia in 1900, and was 

109 



110 CHARLES WARREN FAIRBANKS 

chaii*man of the Committee on Resolutions which reported the 
platform. 

Senator Fairbanks took his seat in the United States Senate 
on March 4, 1897, and was soon recognized as one of the most 
industrious, painstaking, and forceful members of the Senate. 
He was chaii-man of the Committee on Immigration, and later, 
on the reorganization of the Senate, became chairman of the 
Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds, and a member of 
the important committees of Judiciary, Relations with Canada, 
Immigration, and the Pacific Islands and Porto Rico. He has 
made a number of important speeches in the Senate, the most 
important, perhaps, being upon the resolution declaring war 
against Spain. 

Senator Fairbanks was appointed by the President a member 
of the United States and British Joint High Commission for the 
settlement of Canadian and Newi'oimdland questions. The 
commission met at Quebec in 1898, and later in the city of 
Washington. Senator Fairbanks was chairman of the American 
commissioners. 

Senator Fairbanks devoted his entire time to the practice of 
law prior to his entrance to the Senate. He is an active mem- 
ber of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and in 1885 was elected 
a trustee of his alma mater, the Ohio Wesleyan University. 




FREDERICK TYSOE FEAREY 

FREDERICK TYSOE FEAREY is of EngHsh parentage 
and New Jersey nativity, his parents having come from 
England and settled in Newark, New Jersey, about the year 
1838. His father was Isaac Fearey, son of William and Mary 
Fearey, and his mother, whose maiden name was Alice Tysoe, 
was the daughter of Robert and Alice Tysoe, all of Stevington, 
Bedfordshire, England. Frederick Tysoe Fearey was born in 
Newark, New Jersey, on September 18, 1848, and was educated 
in the public schools and business colleges of that city, and as 
his inchnations turned to active business life, he early decided 
to engage in railroading and kindred pursuits. 

His business career began when he was twenty-one years of 
age, when he became a clerk in the general passenger agent's 
office of the Central Railroad of New Jersey, in New Yoi-k city. 
There he sj)ent several years, under the direction of that expert 
railroad manager, Mr. H. P. Baldwin. In 187-i he returned to 
Newark as the representative in that city of the Pennsylvania 
Railroad's passenger department, and filled that place with success 
for ten years. Thereafter he represented in a like capacity the 
Erie Railroad, the Central Railroad of New Jersey, the Baltimore 
& Ohio Railroad, and various other transportation companies. 

His activities were not, however, confined to this business. 
In 1879 he organized the Domestic Telegraph Company, after- 
ward known as the Domestic Telegraph & Telephone Company, 
and finally as the Newark District Telegraph Messenger & 
Burglar Alarm Company. He made a number of improvements 
in the operation and general development of these enterprises, 
and was closely identified with their official direction and 
financial success. 

Ill 



112 FREDEKICK TYSOE FEAREY 

Mr, Fearey in 1888 iBvented an improvement in the fastening 
together of the ends of raihoad rails, secured a patent, and 
organized the Continuous Rail Joint Company of America. His 
device has been extensively adopted throughout the United 
States, being now in use on more than one hundred and fifty 
railroads, both steam and electric. It was exhibited at the Paris 
World's Fair of 1900 in competition with others, and received 
the highest award in that department, a bronze medal. This 
award was made to the Continuous Rail Joint Company of 
America, which owns Mi". Fearey's patents and which has 
developed the enterprise under Mr. Fearey's direction, he being 
the managing director and treasurer of the company. This 
company operates a rolling-mill at Troy, New York, known as 
the Albany Iron Works, and emplojdng about two hundred men 
the year round. It also has a large amount of manufacturing 
done under contract by the Illinois Steel Company, in two roll- 
ing-mills near Chicago, Illinois. 

Mr. Fearey makes his home in East Orange, adjoining Newark. 
He is a member of the First Baptist Church of Newark, the New 
Jersey Historical Society, the Newark Board of Trade, the Essex 
Club of Newark, and the Blooming Grove Park Association of 
Pike County, Pennsylvania. He was married, in 1896, to Miss 
Bertha Louise Kittel of Mount Vernon, New York, and has one 
daughter, Marie Louise Fearey. 





/ 



^/^cc /^^^ ^^\J'' 



JOHN SCOTT FERGUSON 

JOHN SCOTT FERGUSON, who for years has ranked 
among the leaders of the State and United States bar hi 
western Pennsylvania, conies of heroic and patriotic New Eng- 
land stock. His i:)aternal grandfather was a Revolutionary sol- 
dier who served with distinction at Bunker Hill and in many 
other battles. For a time he was a member of Colonel Stark's 
famous New Hamiishire regiment, and later he was in Colonel 
Wood's regiment of Massachusetts troops. At the close of the 
war he settled in Pennsylvania, and for many years was a 
prominent citizen of Washington Comity. He died there in 
18-J:2 at a very advanced age, one of the comparatively few sur- 
vivors at that time of the Revolutionary army. 

In the next generation the family was settled at Pittsburg, 
the metropolis of western Pennsylvania, and there, on Janu- 
ary 24, 1842, shortly before his venerable grandfather's death, 
John Scott Ferguson was l)orn. His early education was ac- 
quired in the public schools of his native city, and from them 
he proceeded to Allegheny College, from which he was gradu- 
ated with the baccalaureate degree in 1860, at the age of only 
eighteen years. His inclinations and aptitude moved him to- 
ward the legal profession, and, accordingly, after his graduation 
he began the study of the law. In this he made rapid progress, 
but had to wait until he was of legal age, in 1863, before he could 
be admitted to practice at the bar. 

Upon being admitted to the bar of the State of Pennsylvania, 
Mr. Ferguson began the active practice of his profession in 
Pittsburg, and has continued therein ever since with constantly 
increasing success. He was soon admitted to practice at the bar 

113 



114 JOHN SCOTT FEBGUSON 

of the United States courts, and for maii}^ years has been a 
prominent figure tliere, commanding attention by virtue of his 
character and ability, as well as by his exceptional success in 
winning suits. 

He has been identified with numerous important and widely 
kno^vn eases. Among these were the Indian ejectment suits, 
which occui:»ied much of the attention of the Federal courts from 
1874 to 1880, and the Pittsburg and Connellsville bond cases, in 
which the siun of ten million dollars was at stake. 

Although he has now been i:»ractising his profession nearly 
forty years without a break, Mr. Ferguson shows no signs of 
wearying in his labors, Init, on the contrary, is as diligent and 
ambitious in the work of his office and at the bar as ever he was 
in his early days. His eldest son, Edwin C. Ferguson, is now 
his law partner, and the firm is universally recognized as being 
second to none at the Pittsburg bar. 

Mr. Ferguson is a member of the State and National Bar asso- 
ciations, and of various other professional and social organiza- 
tions. He is connected, as attorney or otherwise, with nmnerous 
important business corporations. 

He was married, in September, 1863, to Miss Nancy A. Gra- 
ham, who has borne him five children. 




11 








v/ . v'^<Z--<C--^— -^v 



LUCIUS GEORGE FISHER 

IUCIUS GEORGE FISHER is tlie son of a man of the 
J same name who in 1837 went from Vermont to Wisconsin 
and was one of the fii'st settlers of Beloit. He there became a 
great landowner, manufacturer, banker, and raih'oad magnate. 
He was one of the principal founders and patrons of Beloit 
College. For one term he was a member of the State Legisla- 
ture. For some years he was postmaster of Beloit. In 1866 he 
went to Chicago and was one of the builders and proprietors of 
large office buildings. He died in 1886. 

The elder Mr. Fisher married Miss Caroline Field of Simsbury, 
Connecticut, a daughter of the Rev. Peter Field. She went to 
Beloit in 1840, and was married two years later. She died in 1850. 

Lucius George Fisher the younger, son of the foregoing, was 
born at Beloit on November 27, 1843. He was educated at 
Beloit, and had just matriculated at Beloit College when the 
Pike's Peak gold fever broke out. His father, then a manufac- 
tui'er, sent one of the first qviartz-mills to the mountains, and 
the young man persuaded him to let him accompany the train 
that bore it. So, with a wagon and six yoke of oxen, Mr. Fisher 
crossed the plains, and rovighed it on the fi'ontier until the fall of 
1861. At that time he came to New York city, and became a 
clerk in a hardware shop. In 1863, being twenty years old, he 
enhsted in the Eighty-fourth Regiment of the New York National 
Guard. With it he went through a campaign in the Shenandoah 
Valley, was made color-sergeant, and came back with it to assist 
in quelling the New York riots. That was a ninety-day regiment, 
and on the expiration of that time he was discharged, but imme- 
diately enlisted in the navy, and served during the rest of the 
war in the paymaster's department on board the Wyandauk. 

115 



116 LUCIUS GEORGE FISHER 

At the close of the war Mr. Fisher went to Chicago and got 
employment as a porter in the service of the Rock River Paper 
Company. From that humble jilace he was rapidly promoted, 
until in 1870 he became manager of the business. The next 
year he was enabled to purchase an interest in the paper-bag 
manufacturing firm of Wheeler & Hinman, the name of which 
was thereupon changed to Wheeler, Fisher & Co. The concern 
entered upon an era of expansion and prosperity, and was pres- 
ently incorporated under the name of the Union Bag & Paper 
Company. Of this corporation Mr. Fisher was secretary and 
treasurer, and he had the entire management of its business 
affairs. 

Progress and expansion were still his principles. Accordingly 
in 1891 the capital stock of the company was increased from 
if^500,000 to $2,000,000. The large paper-bag manufacturing 
businesses of Hollingswortli & Whitney of Boston, of Smith, 
Dixon & Co. of Baltimore, of Chatfield & Woods of Cincinnati, 
of Blake, Moffitt, & Towne of San Francisco, and of E. J. How- 
lett & Co. of Philadelphia were absorbed, and thus one of the 
largest concerns of the kind in the whole country was organized. 
Of this enlarged corporation Mr. Fisher was elected president, 
and he had general management of its affairs until March, 1899. 
At that time the company sold all its interests to the Union Bag 
& Paper Company of New Jersey. This latter corporation had 
been organized for the purpose by Mr. Fisher, and he was its presi- 
dent. It now controls all the business and good will and patent 
rights of all the leading paper-bag manufacturers of the United 
States, and lias a practical monopoly of that industry. Its capital 
is $27,000,000. It owns large tracts of tindjer land in various 
parts of the country, from which the raw material for wood-pulp 
is obtained. Thus eighteen large paper-mills are kept busy with 
the output of a number of wood-pulp mills, and they in turn 
supply the bag factories. The enormous extent of the business 
is indicated by the simple statement that the average product of 
the corporation is about twenty million bags a day. 

In earlier years Mr. Fisher divided his attention among vari- 
ous manufacturing enterprises. But as the paper-bag industry 
grew and was so successful, he wisely deemed it best to give all 
his attention to it. Accordingly he sold out his interests in all 



LUCIUS GEORGE FISHEK 117 

other concerns, one by one, until he was able to give all his time 
and ability to the gi'eat paper-bag enterprise. He has, however, 
retained large real-estate holdings in Chicago. These he acquired 
in 1886, and they have proved highly profitable. He has devoted 
much attention to the improvement of this property and to its 
successful management with excellent results. A few years ago 
he erected the Fisher Building. This is eighteen stories high. 
It stands at the corner of Van Bui-en and Dearborn streets, and 
is one of the most notable of the " sky-scrapers " of Chicago. 

Mr. Fisher has taken little interest in pohtical affairs, since his 
retirement from the military and naval service of the country, 
beyond discharging the duties of an intelligent and patriotic 
citizen. He has lield no public office, and has sought none. 

He is a member of various social organizations, in all of which 
he is a popular and influential factor. Among these may be 
mentioned the Chicago, the Union League, the Washington 
Park, the Midlothian, and the Chicago Athletic clubs of Chicago, 
and the Engineers' and New York clubs of New York city. 

Mr. Fisher was married on April 20, 1870, to Miss Katherine 
Louise Eddy, a daughter of the Rev. Alfred Eddy of Chicago. 
They have fovu* children : Lucius George Fisher, the third to 
bear that name ; Alice Fisher, now the wife of Alexis Foster of 
Denver; Ethel Field Fisher; and Kathryu Fisher. 

Mr. Fisher's career, in its humble but energetic beginning, 
its ready progress, its idtimate and commanding success, and its 
invariable enterprise and integrity, may well be regarded as 
tyi^ical both of the great West, in which it has been so largely 
cast, and of the whole country, with which it has at last come 
to be identified. 




CHARLES FLEISCHMANN 



THE name of FleischmaBn has long been identified most inti- 
mately with some of the great industries of the United 
States, so as to have become in a peeiiliar sense a " household 
word." It is inseparably associated with the " staff of life," and 
equally with the "social glass" — a trade-mark of excellence 
upon the yeast with which the housewife makes her bread, and 
upon the spirits which are imbibed for pleasure or for health. 
This name was first brought to this country by the late Charles 
Fleisehmann, a man who well represented in oui' cosmopolitan 
community the dual realm of Austria-Hungary, inasmuch as 
he was of Austrian blood and of Hungarian nativity. He was 
born in Hungary, on November 3, 183-4, his father, A. N. Fleiseh- 
mann, being an Austrian. 

Charles Fleisehmann received an excellent academic education 
in the schools of the Austrian capital, Vienna, and also in those 
of the Bohemian capital, Pr-ague. In these, as in all schools in 
those countries, education was thorough and practical, and on 
leaving them the young man was well equipped, in attainments 
and discipline, for the business career toward which his inchna- 
tions strongly led him. Accordingly, on attaining his majority, 
he entered practical business life. 

His first engagement was as a clerk in a general store at 
Jiigerndorf, in Austria. That occupation was of little profit to 
him, save as a practical training in business methods, in which 
respect it was of material advantage. He remained in it for 
several years, however, before the way opened up before him to 
more extended and pi'omising fields of industry, for which he 
was constantly on the outlook. 

In 1860, the year of Austria's lumiiliation in the Seven Weeks' 

118 




CliTAMILES FlLSlSCMMAJfW. 



CHARLES FLEISCHMANN 119 

War with Prussia, Mr. Fleischmann took at the flood the tide 
which afterward bore him so abundantly on to fortune. He 
came to the United States, the land of promise, and of i^erform- 
ance, to so many of his counti*ymen. True, he did so with no 
definite promise of anything better here than he had enjoyed 
in the old country. But America itself was a sufficient promise 
to the ambitious young man, who was quite ready himself to 
work out the fulfilment thereof. He settled in New York city 
for a couple of years, and engaged in the business of distilling, in 
which his father had been engaged l)efore him, and in which he 
was well versed. 

In it he was associated with James W. Claff and Max Fleisch- 
mann, under the firm-name of Gaff, Fleischmann & Co., Max 
Fleischmann beiiig his younger brother. The enterprise pros- 
pered from the start, and in 1867 the firm added to its distilling 
business the manufacture of compressed yeast, thus founding an 
enterprise which has since gi-own to enormous proportions, and 
with which the name of Fleischmann is inseparably connected. 

Mr. Fleischmann left New York in 1869, and established him- 
self in Cincinnati, where he continued the chstilling business 
with gi'eat success. He became such a master of its details and 
so progi'essive a leader in the industry as to be able to make an 
important invention of new apparatus, by means of which the 
yield of spirits from a given quantity of grain was largely 
increased, to the great profit of the business. This device was 
promptly put to practical and most successful use in the Mill 
Spring Distillery and other estabhshments, and effected a 
marked change in business conditions, to Mr. Fleischmann's 
gi-eat profit and to the enhancement of his prestige in the 
business world. 

The firm of Gaff, Fleischmann & Co. was broken, in 1883, by 
the withdrawal of the Gaff estate, Mr. Gaff having died some 
time before, and the firm-name was changed to that of Chai'les 
& Maximilian Fleischmann. Six years later Max Fleischmann 
died, leaving Charles Fleischmann alone in the business. Mr. 
Fleischmann not only continued the business alone, but expanded 
it, year by year, until it reached vast proportions. The style of 
the concern was changed to that of Charles Fleischmann & Co., 
though Mr. Fleischmann was the sole proprietor. 



120 CHAKLES FLEISCHMANN 

Mr. Fleischmann was also interested in various other business 
enterprises. He was an owner of the Buffalo Distilling Com- 
pany of Buffalo, New York, and. of the Baltimore Manufactur- 
ing Company of Baltimore, Maryland. He was the principal 
stockholder and for many years president of the Market National 
Bank of Cincinnati, and president of the "Commercial Tribune" 
Company of Cincinnati, and he owned much valuable real estate 
in that city. 

In public and pohtical affau's Mr. Fleischmann took an active 
and honorable interest. He was connected prominently with a 
number of pubhc-spirited organizations in Cincinnati, and for a 
term of years served as Fire Commissioner in that city. He was 
elected to the State Senate as a Republican in 1880, and again in 
1895, and did valuable work as a legislator. Afterward he was a 
chrector of the State Asylum for the Insane. He was a personal 
friend of William McKinley, and when the latter became Gover- 
nor of Ohio in 1892-93, he made Mr. Fleischmann a member of 
his staff. 

Mr. Fleischmann was fond of out-of-door sports, especially of 
yachting and horse-racing. He began to indulge in the latter in 
1890, and had for some years one of the best stables of thorough- 
breds in America, which included a number of noteworthy horses. 
His influence upon the turf was always toward the elevation of 
the sport and the elimination of the evils which have too often 
brought it into disrepute. 

In the fall of 1897 Mr. Fleischmann suffered a shght paralytic 
stroke while on his yacht in New York harbor. He rallied fi'om 
it, however, and went to his home at Avondale, near Cincinnati. 
There he died on December 10 following. He left three chil- 
dren : Juhus Fleischmann, Max Fleischmann, and Mrs. C. R. 
Holmes. 



(SiCi) 





ill 



Y-jAJi^' 



j iXUr^j^ 



JULIUS FLEISCHMANN 



THE name of Fleiscbmami is now, for the second generation, 
conspicuously and honorably identified with several impor- 
tant industries in the United States. It is of Austrian origin, 
having been borne two generations ago by A. N. Fleischmann of 
Jagerndorf, Austria, a successful distiller. He had two sons, 
Charles and Maximilian, who learned the distiUing business and 
then came to America to engage in it. That was in 1866. The 
two young men spent two years in New York, in partnership 
with James W. Gaff, successfully carrying on the bvisiness of 
distilling. Then they removed to Cincinnati, Ohio, and there 
conducted the business on a still larger scale and with gi'eater 
success, being materially aided by some new inventions of their 
own, by means of which the yield of spirits from grain was 
much inci'eased. They also began the manufactm^e of the com- 
pressed yeast for bread-making, the name of which, Fleisch- 
mann's Compressed Yeast, has for many years been a household 
word throughout the country. Their "Vienna Bakery" at the 
Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876 is well remem- 
bered, the " Vienna bread " made with their yeast marking an 
epoch in the history of the "■ staff of life." 

These businesses grew to large proportions. In 1882 Mr. Gaff 
died, and a year later his widow withdrew her interest from the 
firm, which thereupon changed its style from Gaff, Fleischmann 
& Co. to that of Charles & Maximilian Fleischmann. Of these 
partners, the former and elder remained in Cincinnati, while the 
latter made New York his home and business quarters, maintain- 
ing here a manufactory and the well-known " Vienna Bakery " 
on Broadway. Maximilian Fleischmann died in September, 
1890, and the firm then became known as that of Charles 

121 



122 JULIUS FLEISCHMANN 

Fleischmann & Co., though Charles Fleischmann was the sole 
proprietor. After a distinguished and successful career, Charles 
Fleischmann died on December 10, 1897, leaving a daughter, 
Mrs. C. R. Holmes, and two sons, Julius Fleischmann and 
Maximihan C. Fleischmann. 

Julius Fleischmann, the elder of Charles Fleischmann's two 
sons, and his oldest child, was bom in Cincinnati in 1872. He 
received an excellent education in the schools of that city and 
elsewhere, and then entered the business with which his father 
had so long and so successfully been identified as founder and 
head. He was only a young man when his father died, but he 
showed himself competent to succeed him as the head of the 
great business, and to manage successfully the diversified inter- 
ests of the estate. Thus he became the head of the firm own- 
ing and conducting the yeast-manufacturing business, and also 
the head of the distilling enterprise which his father and uncle 
had built up. He succeeded his father as chief owner and 
president of the Market National Bank of Cincinnati. He 
is also president of the Union Hay & Grain Company, and 
is a director of various other corporations in Cincinnati and 
elsewhere. 

Mr. Fleischmann has followed his father's salutary example in 
taking an active interest in public affairs. He early identified 
himself with the Republican party, and was appointed to a place 
on the staff of Govei'nor McKinley in 1892, with the rank of 
colonel, and held that place during the succeeding administra- 
tions of Governor Bushnell and Governor Nash. But he did 
not confine his political acti\aties to appointive places. In the 
spring of 1900 he was the standard-bearer of his party in one of 
the greatest local victories it ever won at the polls in Cincinnati. 
Three years before, the Fusion party, composed of Democrats 
and dissentient Republicans, had carried the city in a mayoralty 
election by a majority of 7145 in a total vote of 66,000. On 
this occasion they confidently expected to repeat the perform- 
ance. The Republicans, however, nominated Colonel Fleisch- 
mann for Mayor, though he was at the time in New York and 
remained there until only a week before the election. A spirited 
campaign ensued, which resulted, at the election of April 2, in a 
sweeping Republican victory, to which Colonel Fleischmann's 



JULIUS FLEISCHMANN 123 

personal popularity largely contributed. Colonel Fleisclimann 
was elected Mayor by a majority of more than 8500, and the whole 
city ticket was carried in with him. The Republicans elected 
their candidate for Mayor and all the members of the new Board 
of Public Service for three years, which controls everything ex- 
cept the Police and Fire Departments. The Board of Legisla- 
tion stood twenty-fovir Republicans and seven Democrats, and 
the Board of Education twenty-four Repubhcans and seven 
Democrats. 

The example of his father has also been followed by Mr. 
Fleischmann in his fondness for the two greatest of out-of-door 
sports, yachting and horse-racing. He maintains a fine racing- 
stable, including a number of winning racers, and has a yacht, on 
which he spends part of every summer cruising along the Atlantic 
coast. He is a member of various social clubs of the best rank 
in Cincinnati and New York. 

Mr. Fleischmann is married and has three children. He has a 
fine home on Washington Avenue, Avondale, in the suburbs of 
Cincinnati, and a splendid summer residence among the Catskill 
Mountains, New York. 




CHARLES NEWELL FOWLER 



THE families of Fowler and Montague are both of English 
origin, and were planted in this country at an early date. 
The former came hither in 1632, and settled in Vermont, while 
the latter, coming over in the same year, made a home in Massa- 
chusetts. In the last generation the two famihes were united 
in the marriage of Joshua D. Fowler and Rachel Montague. 
This couple hved at Lena, Illinois, where Mr. Fowler was a 
farmer. To them, at that place, was bona, on November 2, 1852, 
the subject of this sketch. 

Charles Newell Fowler was at fii'st educated in the common 
schools of his native place. Next he was prepared for college at 
Beloit, Wisconsin, and then entered Yale, where he was gradu- 
ated in 1876 with the degree of A. B. Finally, adopting the law 
as his profession, he became a law student in the office of Wil- 
liams & Thompson in Chicago, and also in the Chicago Law 
School, from which latter institution he was graduated in 1878. 

He then settled at Beloit, Kansas, and entered upon the prac- 
tice of his profession. In this he was eminently successful, and 
in it he continvied for four years. Then he became con\inced 
that the great business centers of the Eastern States afforded 
better opportunities for important achievement than any other 
part of the Union. Accordingly he came hither, and engaged in 
banking. In that business he has had a career of marked suc- 
cess, and he has also identified himself with the general business 
and social interests of the community, 

Mr. Fowler long ago became interested in politics as a Repub- 
lican. In 1894 he was elected a Representative in Congress 
from the Eighth Congi'essioual District of New Jersey, receiving 
a plurality of 6236 votes. Two years later he was reelected by 

124 





(Jda^iA^ 




CHARLES NEWELL FOWLER 125 

a majority nearly twice as large as his former plm^ality. Again, 
in 1898, he was a third time elected, by a margin of more than 
5000 votes. These figures attest the esteem in which he is held 
by his neighbors. At Washington he has been held in similarly 
high esteem. He was at once appointed a member of the very 
important Committee on Banking and Currency, for which Mr. 
Fowler was especially fitted by study and practice. He has 
remained ever since a member of that committee, and now stands 
second on its roll. In financial discussion and legislation he 
has taken an important part, and the financial bill enacted by 
Congress in January, 1900, contained the three principles first 
advocated by him, namely, the estabhshment of an unequivocal 
gold standard, the retirement of the demand obligations of the 
government, and the funding of the national debt in two-per- 
cent, gold coin bonds. 

Mr. Fowler is also a member of the House committees on 
Civil Service Reform and on Foreign Affairs. 

Since 1891 Mi". Fowler has made his home in Elizabeth, New 
Jersey, and is recognized as one of the foremost representative 
citizens of that city, conspicuous for pubhc spirit and readiness 
in all good works. Having worked his own way through school, 
college, and law school, he takes a deep and sympathetic interest 
in educational affairs, and especially in the efforts of young men 
to secure adeqi;ate learning. He has assisted many a struggling 
young man to make his way through school and college. He is 
at the head of the well-known Pmgry School, has recently pur- 
chased the ground and is ai'ranging to erect a pubhc library, and 
is to be credited with many broad and discriminating charities. 

Mr. Fowler was married, in 1879, to Miss Hilda S. Heg, daugh- 
ter of Colonel H. C. Heg, who was killed at Chickamauga. 
Mrs. Fowler received her education at Beloit, Wisconsin, and in 
Em-ope. They have one child, Charles N. Fowler, Jr. 

Mr. Fowler is a member of the Down-Town Association and 
University Club of New York city ; and of the Mettano, Town 
and Country, and Athletic clubs of Elizabeth, New Jersey. 



JOSEPH M. GAZZAM 



THE State of Pennsylvania is one of the oldest communities 
in North America. It has played one of the most important 
historical parts in the foundation and development of the United 
States. And it is at the present time easily second in impor- 
tance among the States of the Union, vs^hether in social, business, 
or political respects. Natui'ally, therefore, it has during many 
generations contributed a large quota to the roster of men dis- 
tinguished in the professional, pohtical, business, and social life 
of the nation. 

Prominent among the number of these is the siibject of the 
present sketch, Joseph M. Gazzam, whose father and grand- 
father were before him honorably conspicuous in the history of 
the State, and indeed of the nation, and who himself has for 
many years been well and favorably known throughout the 
country as a lawyer, business man, and statesman, as well as a 
gentleman of sterling worth in the private relationships of life. 

Mr. Gazzam was born at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, on Decem- 
ber 2, 1842. Being of delicate health, his early education was 
not vigorously pursued, but after several years of travel and a 
careful preparatory training l)y his distinguished father, he was 
educated at the Western University of Pennsylvania. He then 
studied law in the office of the Hon. David Reed at Pittsbm^g, 
and was duly admitted to the bar at Pittsburg in 1864. Three 
years later he was admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of 
Pennsylvania, in 1869 in the United States Circuit Court and 
district courts of Pennsylvania, and in 1870, upon motion of 
the late Benjamin F. Butler, in the Supreme Court of the United 
States. In the latter body Mr. Gazzam was among the youngest 
members ever admitted to practice before it. 

126 



JOSEPH M. GAZZAM 127 

In the practice of his profession Mr. Gazzam became success- 
ful, and that distinction followed him in his professional career 
in Philadelphia, to which city he removed from Pittsburg in 
1879. He is at present associated with William S. Wallace and 
Edward Fell Lukens, under the name of Gazzam, Wallace & 
Lukens, with commodious offices in the Real Estate Trust 
Building. 

At a comparatively early age Mr. Gazzam evinced, as if by 
inheritance, a keen interest in political affairs. He represented 
his ward in the Pittsburg Common Council, and later was elected 
to the State Senate. Upon several occasions his name was 
prominently mentioned in connection with the mayoralty of 
Pittsburg and the heutenant-governorship of Pennsylvania. 
For a number of years Mr. Gazzam served as president of the 
Pennsylvania Club, an influential Republican organization of 
Philadelphia. He is also a life member of the Union League 
Club of that city. 

In business circles Mr. Gazzam is also widely and favorably 
known, being connected with a large number of prominent 
enterprises. He is president of the Kenilworth Inn and Land 
companies, the Rennyson Tredyffrin Lithia Water Company, 
the American Gold Dredging Company, and the Philadelphia and 
Arizona Mining Company. He is vice-president of the Quaker 
City National Bank, the Aines-Bonner Brush Company, the 
South American Auer Light Company, and the Deer Creek and 
the Dent's Run Coal companies. He is also a director in the 
Welsbach Company of Canada, the American Incandescent 
Light Manufacturing Company, the Spring Garden Insurance 
Company, and a large number of other corporations. 

Professional and business interests, however, have not monopo- 
lized Mr. Gazzam's attention. He takes a keen interest in art, 
literature, and social matters. He is a life member of the Hor- 
ticultural Society, the Fairmount Park Art Association, the 
Franklin Institute, the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, the 
Pennsylvania Forestry Association, the Lawyers' Club, and a 
member of numerous other social organizations in Philadelphia 
and elsewhere. 

In 1893 Mr. Gazzam man-ied Miss Nellie M. Andrews, a lady 
prominent in society in New Orleans, Louisiana, He resides 



128 JOSETH M. GAZZAM 

with his wife, son, and daughter at No. 265 South Nineteenth 
Street, Philadelphia. 

The ancestry of Mr. Gazzam is highly distinguished in hoth 
Europe and the United States. His paternal grandfather, Wil- 
liam Clazzani, was an Enghsh journahst in the latter part of the 
eighteenth century, who ^dgorously defended the rights of the 
American colonies. His open defense of the rights of man 
incurred the enmity of the crown, and, in consequence, he was 
compelled to leave the coimtry. He came to the United States 
in 1792, settling in Philadelphia, where he was most cordially 
received. Later he went to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and finally to 
Pittsburg, where he remained imtil his death in 1811. He was 
appointed by President Madison to the office of Collector of the 
Port of Pittsbm-g, and was also a magistrate, a position of high 
honor in those days. 

In the next generation. Dr. Edward D. Gazzam, fourth son of 
William Grazzam and father of Joseph M. Gazzam, attained 
enviable prominence as a physician, lawyer, and statesman. 
He was much interested in jiohtics, and was a coadjutor of 
Salmon P. Chase and others in organizing the Free-soil party at 
the Buffalo Convention in 1818, from which the present Repub- 
lican party largely sprang. He was also that party's first candi- 
date for Governor of Pennsylvania. In 1855 Dr. Gazzam was a 
Free-soil candidate for State Senator. He was defeated in the 
contest, but the next year he was again put forward, this time 
as the candidate for the Union Republican party, and he was 
elected by about one thousand majority over the combined votes 
of his two opponents. 

Dr. Gazzam married Miss Elizabeth Antoinette de Beelen de 
Bertholff, daughter of Constautine Antoine de Beelen de Ber- 
tholff and granddaughter of Baron Frederick Eugene Francois 
de Beelen de BerthoM, who was Austrian Minister to the United 
States from 1783 to 1787. 



WILLIAM WARREN GIBBS 



THE peeuliai" trend of mind that is necessary for the concep- 
tion of an invention and the perfection of the minute 
details of a device is seldom coupled with the business genius 
necessary to make it commercially successful. The originality 
and power of conception possessed by the inventor brings into 
existence mechanical marvels that wall revolutionize manufac- 
tm'e ; but the financial sense and calculating methods of the 
promoter are, after all, the qualities that are needed to attract 
the attention of the world. In thus developing inventions, and 
in making them commercially profitable, few men have been 
more successful than William W. Gibbs, one of Philadelphia's 
foremost financiers. 

William Warren Gibbs was born in the village of Hope, 
Warren County, New Jersey, on March 8, 1846. He is the son 
of Levi B. Gibbs and Ellen Venatta. His father's ancestors 
were among the early settlers of Rhode Island, and his mother 
was a sister of the late Jacob Venatta, one of the leading lawyers 
of New Jersey, and at one time Attorney-General of that State. 
Mr. Gibbs was educated in the pubhc schools of his native 
village, and at fourteen years of age sought employment in a 
grain, floiu", and feed store in Newark, New Jersey. A year 
later he was clerk in a general country store, where he remained 
for two years, going from there to take a position at a larger 
estabhshment at Hackettstown, New Jersey. Here he served 
for eight years, and abundantly displayed the financial abilities 
so conspicuous in his subsequent career. At the age of twenty- 
three he liecame a partner in the business, and two years later, 
in 1871, his partner died and he closed out the business. 

With a few thousand dollars as capital, he went to New York, 

129 



130 WILLIAM WAKREN GIBBS 

and with friends began the retail dry-goods business. This 
evidently was not altogether successful, and in 1873 he organ- 
ized the firm of Bauer, Gibbs & Co., wholesale grocers. They 
were hampered, however, by inadequate capital, and he with- 
drew from the firm in 1875, practically penniless. He was, 
however, active and aggressive, and being well read in scientific 
jom'nals, was on the alert for some new money-making venture. 
At this juncture he became acquainted with Ferdinand King, 
inventor and holder of a patent for making gas from petroleum, 
and the two formed a corporation called the National Petroleum 
Gas Company of New York. Although they had no capital but 
an abiding faith in the merits of the invention, Mr. Gibbs's 
abihty, shrewdness, and untiring energy soon l^rought the firm 
a contract to build a gas-works in a small country town. He 
then succeeded in interesting Amos Paul, agent of the Swamp- 
scott Machine Company, of South New Market, New Hampshire, 
and through him made an arrangement to build the works for 
their new system. This corporation figiu'ed as the nominal con- 
tractors for the new works, but in reality they were only sub- 
contractors under Mr. Gibbs's company. In this way a start was 
made by the National Petroleum Gas Company of New York. 
The work was satisfactory and the gas was good. His success 
here procured him a large number of contracts. Conservative, 
yet energetic, he took upon him the whole burden of the work 
and did the contracting, negotiating, traveling, and superintend- 
ing. In his first seven years after withdrawing from the grocery 
business, he Ijuilt more than a hundred gas-works in aU parts of 
the country from Maine to California, and was worth a quarter 
of a million. His system of making gas involved the use of 
large quantities of petroleum, and his heavy pm*chases soon 
formed for him the acquaintance of some of the active ofiicials 
of the Standard Oil Company, whom he succeeded in interesting 
in his processes. 

As a result of his representations and efforts the United Gas 
Improvement Company was formed in 1882, with Mr. Gibbs as 
general manager. This company has developed into one of the 
most important corporations in the United States. Mr. Gibbs 
devoted his entire time and energies to this company from its 
organization down to 1889, when he was induced to take up the 



WILLIAM WARREN GIBBS 131 

construction of the Poughkeepsie Bridge and the roads connect- 
ing the bridge with the railway systems east and west. Mr. 
Gibbs was also chah-man of a pool that acquired the majority of 
the stock or control of the Reading Raih'oad Company. In 
these operations large sums of money were borrowed, and in 
1890, when the Baring panic came on, he found himself very 
much extended, and as a residt his entire fortune was sacrificed, 
and he was left on January 1, 1891, with an obligation of abovit 
$3,000,000 and an interest account of $180,000 a year. To repay 
this debt, principal and interest, and regain his fortune, was a 
task that few men would have had the corn-age to undertake, and 
yet, remarkable as it may seem, Mr. Gibbs did succeed dm-ing 
the ensuing eight years in paying his indebtedness in full, which, 
with the interest, amounted to between $4,000,000 and $5,000,000, 
and has also accmnulated a fortune much larger than he pos- 
sessed before. Mr. Gibbs is at present president, director, or 
manager of more than twenty corporations, many of which 
promise as great success as has attended any of his previous 
efforts. 

Mr. Gibbs was married on October 16, 1872, to Frances A. 
Johnson, daughter of George W. Johnson, one of his early em- 
ployers. They have six children, and reside in one of the most 
handsome residences on Walnut Street, Philadelphia. 




CHARLES PIERREPONT HENRY GILBERT 

/-CHARLES PIERREPONT HENRY GILBERT, a promi- 
yj neut and successful architect of New York city, comes ot 
Euo-lish and New England ancestry, and from the same family 
tha't produced the famous Sir Humphi-ey Gilbert, to whom 
Queen Ehzabeth granted a patent for the colonization of North 
America, and who was a half-brother of Sn- Walter Raleigk 
Sir Humphrey's ambitious plans were In-ought to naught through 
his lieing lost at sea, with most of his company, on his return 
voyage from the exploration of Newfoundland. Other members 
of the family, however, soon planted the name m North Amer- 
ica and the Gilberts have here had a long and honorable career. 
The first American ancestor of Charles P. H. Gilbert was 
John Gilbert, the second son of Giles Gilbert of Bridgewater, 
Somersetshire, England. He came over early m the seven- 
teenth centm-y and settled at Dorchester, near Boston, and died 
at Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1654. From him was directly 
descended the late Loring Gilbert of New York, a leadmg com- 
mission merchant, who after a successful business career retn-ed 
fi-om its cares to enjoy his wealth and well-earned I'epose and 
died in 1893. Loring Gilbert married Miss Carohne C. Etc-he- 
bery, and to them the subject of this sketch was born, m New 

York city, on August 29, 1861. . , -, ^ ^ i ^„ 

Mr Gilbert received in his youth a particularly careful educa- 
tion studying both in America and in Europe. After bemg 
prepared for college he took special courses in <^ ^''^''^ 
and architecture, and later took up with some aptitude the study 
of painting and sculpture and the fine arts in general. Having 
completed his special technical and college com-ses, he began 
practical work as an assistant in the office of a prominent farm 



CHARLES PIERREPONT HENRY GILBERT 133 

of architects, where he received the traiuing necessary to prepare 
him for eugaging in business on his own account. 

This step was taken by Mr. Gilbert in 1886, at the age of 
twenty-five years, and ever since that date he has been practis- 
ing the profession of an architect in New York city, with liiore 
than ordinary success. He has had a wide range of experience 
in designing buildings of all kinds. Since 1893 especially he has 
had a very large business, which is still growing steadily year by 
year. In addition, he is a director or a stockholder in a number 
of large manufacturing companies outside of New York. 

Mr. Gilbert has held and has sought no political preferment. 
He is a member of numerous professional and social organiza- 
tions, among which are the Chamber of Commerce of the State 
of New York, the Architectural League, the Society of Colonial 
Wars, the Society of the Sons of the Revolution, the New Eng- 
land Society, and the Fine Arts, Metropohtan, Union League, 
Lawyers', RicUng, Racquet, Ardsley, Colonial, Country, and 
Nassau Country clubs of New York. He is also a Fellow of 
the American Institute of Ai-chitects, and a veteran of Squadron 
A, the cavalry organization of the New York National Guard. 

He was married, some years ago, to Miss Florence Cecil Moss, 
daughter of the Hon. Theodore Moss of New York city, and has 
two chikb-en, Dudley Fierrepout Gilbert and Vera Pierrepont 
Gilbert. 




LESTER 0. GODDARD 



THE father of the subject of tliis sketch, who bore the same 
iiauie as the son, was a native of Hai-tford, Coiiuecticut, 
and for many years a leading merchant and pohtician in the cen- 
tral and western parts of New York State. In 1855 he removed 
to Michigan, and there spent the remainder of his hfe. He was 
superintendent of the Erie Canal betw^een Rochester and Syra- 
cuse in early days. His family had been settled at Hartford, 
Connecticut, since 1639. He married Miss Mabel Robinson, a 
member of the famous Massachvi setts family of that name, 
which traces back to Francis Cooke, who came over in the 
Man flower. 

To this couple the present Lester O. Groddard was born, on 
October 21, 1845, at Palmyra, New York. He was taken to 
Michigan by his parents when he was ten years old, and was 
educated in the schools of that State. He pm-sued the regiilar 
course at the University of Michigan in 1863-G7, being graduated 
in the latter year, and in 18G9-70 took the law course in the same 
institution. 

On leaving the university in March, 1870, Mr. Goddard went 
to Chicago for the practical pursuit of his profession, and entered 
the law office of James M. Walker, w^ho was then president and 
general counsel of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Raih-oad. 
His attention was thus divided between law and railroading, and 
in both pursuits he was more than ordinarily successful. He 
remained in the employ of the C, B. & Q. R. R. Co. for twenty- 
six years, lilUng the places of assistant secretary and assistant 
solicitor under Wirt Dexter, Mr. Walker's successor. He then 
became assistant to the first vice-president of the company, and 
held that place for ten years. On July 1, 1896, he resigned it, 

134 



LESTER O. GODDARD 135 

and severed his connection with that company in order to 
enter the law firm with which he is now identified, that of 
Custer, Goddard & Griffin. In that firm he took the place of 
Wilham J. Campbell, deceased. He made this radical change in 
his business relations at the soHcitation of the late Philip D. 
Arniom*, the capitalist and philanthropist, for whom the firm 
was at that time counsel, and for whom it remained counsel 
down to Mr. Armour's death, in January, 1901. 

The firm is also counsel for many leading elevator companies, 
railroad companies, and other corporations in Chicago and else- 
where, and has a large and lucrative business. 

Mr. Goddard was admitted to the bar in 1883, and has conse- 
quently been practising law for some seventeen years. His 
professional learning and oratorical ability have made him a 
conspicuous figaire in com-t in many noteworthy cases. He is 
distinguished for the careful preparation of his cases and the 
lucidity and impressiveness with which he presents them to the 
court. Personally he is a man of attractive presence and cour- 
teous address, and he is as much a favorite in society and as 
much respected as a citizen as he is admired as a lawyer. 

Mr. Goddard is a member of the Chicago and Union League 
clubs of Chicago, of the National Union Press Council No. 71, 
of the Mayflower Society both of New York and Illinois, and of 
the Society of Colonial Wars. 

He was married on October 25, 1871, to Miss Martha E. Ster- 
hng, daughter of J. M. Sterhng of Monroe, Michigan. They 
have two children, Joseph and Emma. 




GEORGE J. GOULD 

'TTAVING developed a remarkable business ability, and hav- 
XX ing for twelve years devoted himself entirely to my busi- 
ness, and during the past five years taken entire charge of all 
my difficult interests." 

That fragment of a sentence, taken from the will of one of the 
greatest financiers of the age, is fittingly applicable to that finan- 
•cier's son and successor, whom it was intended to characterize. 
The name of Jay Gould is a landmark in the financial and indus- 
trial history of America. Of his eldest son it is to be said that 
he has well sustained the importance of the name. 

George J. Gould was born in the city of New York on Febru- 
ary 6, 1864. His early education was received at private schools, 
and was finished at the Cornell School, on Foi-ty-second Street, 
from which he was graduated in 1880. Then, at the age of six- 
teen years, he entered his father's office and began the business 
career that has placed him, at his present early age, in the fore- 
most rank of the world's financial forces. Inherited abihty and 
the personal guidance of his father's master mind made his 
progress rapid. At an age when most young men are intrusted 
with only simple roiitine matters he acquired an intimate know- 
ledge of the essential operations of enormous enterprises and 
was intrusted with their management. Immediately upon at- 
taining his majority he was elected a director in each of the 
gTcat corporations under his father's control, and his name soon 
began to be linked with that of his father, on all but equal 
terms. He was in time elected to high offices in these corpora- 
tions, so that on his father's death, on December 2, 1892, he was 
natmally prepared to succeed him as their executive and con- 
trolling head. So complete was this readiness, and so great the 




'^ 



GEORGE J. GOULD 137 

confidence felt by the business world in his ability to discharge 
the gigantic trnst, that not the shghtest disturbance in values of 
securities of those companies was suffered in the making of the 
change. 

Mr. Gould is now the head and master mind of six of the 
greatest industrial enterprises — railroads and telegraphs — in 
America, involving six hundred milhon dollars in stock and 
bonds, and commanding the services of eighty thousand 
employees, besides being interested in numerous other con- 
cerns. For years his properties have been noteworthy for their 
prosperity, for their admirable service of the public welfare, and 
for the satisfactory relations existing between the employer and 
the army of employees. 

Business, even of such magnitude, has not, however, monopo- 
lized his attention. He has found time for much travel in all 
parts of the world, and for a healthy participation in out-of- 
door sports and the joys of social life. He has a splendid estate 
of twenty-five hvmdi'ed acres of mountain and forest in the heart 
of the Catskills, the scene of some of his father's early labors. 
For a time he had a fine house in New York city ; but resenting 
what he deemed the unjust discriminations of the tax officers, 
he removed his home a few years ago to the beautiful village of 
Lakewood, New Jersey, where he completed, in 1898, one of the 
finest country houses in America. Living there on the edge of 
a great pine forest, he is a leader of his townsmen in the sports 
of the field. He has also made for himself a name as a generous 
patron of yachting. He takes no part in politics above that of 
a private citizen. But in the latter capacity he has shown 
splendid patriotism, as when, at the outbreak of the war with 
Spain, he offered his fine steam-yacht Atalanta to the govern- 
ment, and said, " All I have is at the disposal of the nation." 

Mr. Crould is a member of most of the first-class clubs of New 
York. He was married, in 1886, to Miss Edith Kingdon, a lady 
of exceptional beauty and charm, and has made with her a home 
of singular felicity. Five children have been born to them. 



GEORGE R. GRAY 



(~1E0RGE R. GRAY, one of the foremost financiers of New 
X Jersey, is a native of that State, ha\dng been born at New- 
ton, Sussex Country, on April 25, 1842. His father, Thomas 
Gray, was also a native of that county, while his gi-andfather, a 
Scotch Presbyterian, was l)oru in the north of Ireland, and on 
coming to this country was one of the pioneers of the iron 
industry in Sussex County and elsewhere in the northern part 
of New Jersey. 

Mr. Gray spent his early years at Newton, and in its schools 
obtained a good English education. At the age of seventeen 
years, in 1859, he left home for New York city, where he en- 
tered practical business life as a clerk in the commercial house 
of John C. Tucker & Co., then at the corner of Dey and Green- 
wich streets. In that house he spent two years, and then, in 
March, 1861, returned to his native State as bookkeeper for 
William Wright & Co., manufaetm-ers of carriage-springs in 
Newark, New Jersey. This firm was reorganized two years 
later under the name of the Passaic Spring Works, and in 1867 
Mr. Gray became a partner in the firm. 

After years of successful business enterprise, Mr. Gray with- 
drew from the company in January, 1875, in order to enter upon 
the office of Treasurer of the city of Newark, to which he had 
been elected by the Board of Aldermen. The term was only 
one year, but at its expiration Mr. Graj^ was retained in the 
pubhc service as Secretary of the Board of Assessment and Re- 
vision of Taxes of Newark. His next public office, in 1883, 
was that of Superintendent of the Aqueduct Board, which place 
he filled for ten years. His public duties were not, however, to 
be confined to his own city of Newark. The New Jersey Legis- 



138 



GEORGE R. GRAY 139 

lature in 1891 elected him Treasm-er of the State for a term of 
three years, and in the following year his duties were further 
enlarged in his appointment, by Governor Abbett, to be a mem- 
ber of the State Board of Electrical Subway Commissioners. 

Mr. Gray has acquired an enviable reputation, not only in 
New Jersey, but also in New York and other States, as an able 
and judicious financier. His expert services have accordingly 
been sought on various occasions for the aid of firms and cor- 
porations the affairs of which have become entangled or compro- 
mised. He has also been appointed receiver of several impor- 
tant concerns. Thus in 1894, when the United States Credit 
System failed for about a million dollars, Mr. Gray was appointed 
to its receivership by the Chancellor of the State of New 
Jersey, the late Alexander McGill. Again, on December 23, 
1897, the com-ts of no fewer than six States, to wit. New York, 
Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, Missouri, and Cahforuia, ap- 
pointed Mr. Gray one of the receivers for the Herring-Hall- 
Marvin Safe Company, under bonds of $500,000. As a result of 
Mr. Gray's intelligent and energetic management, the affairs of 
this large corporation were disentangled and put back into the 
hands of the stockholders in less than three years' time. Mr. 
Gray was also receiver of the State Provident Association of 
Manchester, New Hampshu-e. 

At the present time Mr. Gray is pi-esident of the T. B. Peddie 
Trunk Company of Newark, New Jersey, \nce-president of the 
Essex and Hudson Gas Company, and a director of the Fire- 
man's Insurance Company, and of the Second National Bank of 
Newark. He is a member of the Lawyers', Reform, and Demo- 
cratic clubs of New York city, of the Essex, Jeffersonian, and 
Athletic clubs of Newark, and of the Essex County Country 
Club, and of the Lake Hopatcong Club. 

He was married, on August 16, 1864, to Miss Mary L. Ball, 
daughter of the late Augustus R. Ball of Newark. 



^i^ 




WILLIAM CORNELL GREENE 



THE name of Greene has for centuries ))een conspicuons in 
English and American history. Of the family which bears 
it, one branch was established long ago in Devonshire, Eng- 
land. Its head, at the middle of the seventeenth century, was 
William Greene, who was lineally descended from Catherine 
Parr, the sixth wife of King Henry VIII, and also from Henr^y 
Mordaiint, the second Earl of Peterborougli. William Greene 
came to America in 1G63, and settled at Charlesto^A^l, Massachu- 
setts, of which place he was a freeman in 1664. Later he set- 
tled at Woburn, Massachusetts, where the remainder of his life 
was si)eut. One of his descendants was Nathanael Greene, the 
illustrious general, who was second only to AVashington in the 
War of the Revolution, and another was Ray Greene, the enii- 
ne]it Attorney-General of Rhode Island. 

Another branch of the Greene famil^v lived in Wiltshire, Eng- 
land, and came from Salisbury, in that comity, to Rhode Island 
in IGo"). The head of it, in this migration, was John Greene, 
a surgeon by profession. He was a stanch upholder of civil 
and religious lil)erty, a warm friend of Roger Williams and 
Peter Townsend, and an effective champion of the Quakers and 
Baptists in the days of their persecution in some of the New 
England colonies. One of his descendants was the Rev. Zach- 
ariali Greene, who was a soldier in the Revolutionary army 
and for more than fifty years pastor of a church at Brook- 
haven, Long Island. 

From this latter branch of the Greene family the subject of 
this liiography is descended. His father was To\\Tasend Greene, 
of Orange County, New York, a direct descendant of John 



140 



WILLIAM CORNELL GREENE 141 

Greene, and also of Peter Townscnd. His motlier's maiden 
name was Eleanor Cornell, and she belonged to the Cornell 
family which came from England, settled in Westchester 
County, New Yoi'k, and has for many generations been con- 
spicuously identified with that region. 

William Cornell Greene was born in Westchester County, 
New York, on August 26, 1851, and was educated at private 
schools, and especially at the well-known Chappacpia ISIountain 
Institute, at Chappaqua, in his native county. At the age of 
sixteen years he completed his academic course at the institute, 
and went to New York city to enter business life. His first en- 
gagement was as a clerk in the tea house of O. H. Angevin & Co. 
There he worked for three years, when, the attractions of the 
great West taking hold upon him, he left New York to seek 
what fortune the new country might contain for liiui. He began 
his operations there as a meml)er of the first surveying party 
of the Nortliern Pacific Railroad. The tedium of routine work 
was distasteful to him, however, and he presently left the sur- 
vey, and in 1870 staked out the site of the present city of Fargo, 
North Dakota. Then for ten years he was occupied with min- 
ing and cattle-raising in ]Montana, Colorado, Arizona, and ^Nlex- 
ico. To both of these occupations he devoted himself with sci- 
entific study, and his efforts were crowned with more than 
ordinary success. His mining enterprises have been in the prof- 
itable field of copper-mining, and on Sei)teml)er 15, 1899, he 
organized, in New York, the Greene Consolidated Copper Com- 
pany, for the development of a great series of mines in the Ca- 
nanea Mountains, in the State of Sonora, Mexico. Of this 
company he is president and manager, and it is ranked as the 
third largest copper-prodiicing concern in Amei'ica, its output 
amounting to 72,000,000 pounds a year. As the demand for 
copper in manufactures and the arts is constantly increasing, 
and the value of the metal is rising, Mr. Greene's mines repre- 
sent enormous wealth. In addition t(^ this company, he is presi- 
dent of the Pacific Coast Coal Company, the San Domingo Gold 
Company, and the Cananea Railroad Company. He has also 
continued his operations in cattle-raising, and now OAvns 1,700,- 
000 acres of land and 100,000 head of cattle. He is president 
of the Packard Cattle Company, the Turkey Track Cattle Com- 



142 WILLIAM CORNELL GREENE 

pany, the Canaiiea Cattle Company, and the Greene Cattle 
Company. 

Mr. Greene was married in 1884 to Miss Ella Roberts, who 
died in 1898, leaving a danghter, Eva. He was again mar- 
ried in Febrnary, 1901, to Miss Mary Proctor, of Tucson, 
Arizona, a descendant of the well-known New England fam- 
ily of Proctor, whose American pioneers came over in the ship 
Susan and Ann in 1635. 

During his long career in the West Mr. Greene had many 
thi'illing experiences with hostile Indians, and carries a num- 
ber of lifelong scars as mementos of ])attles with them. He is 
a member of the Masonic Order, and also of the Order of United 
Workmen. He now makes his home in New York cit_y, wliere 
he Avill erect a fine mansion. His business interests remain, 
however, chiefly in the far West. 






i v-^^^J^^^'^'^^<^-^^- 




CLEMENT ACTON GRISCOM 



CLEMENT ACTON GRISCOM, one of the foremost ship- 
ping merchants of the United States, is a native of Philadel- 
phia, Pennsylvania, where he was born on March 15, 1841. His 
father, John D. Griscom, a leading physician of Philadelphia, 
was descended from Andrew Griscom, an associate of William 
Penn, who came to this country in 1G80, and was one of the 
fomiders of Philadelphia ; his mother, whose maiden name was 
Margaret Acton, was a native of Salem, New Jersey, and was 
descended from Thomas Lloyd, Deputy Governor and president 
of the Council of the colony of Pennsylvania in 1(584 and 1693. 
He was educated in public and private schools in Philadelphia, 
and at the age of sixteen began the business to which his life 
has since been devoted. 

His first engagement was as a clerk in the old shipping house 
of Peter Wright & Sons of Philadelphia. Abihty, integrity, and 
energy were the secrets of his rapid progress in promotion. In 
1863, when he was only twenty-two years old, he was admitted 
to partnership in the firm. In that place he was even more diU- 
gent than before in promoting the welfare of the house, and in 
striving to perfect his own knowledge of the details of the busi- 
ness. He in time became charged with the entire management 
of the steamship enterprises of the house, which formed so 
important a part of its business. This department of the busi- 
ness was more congenial to him, and he devoted himself to it 
with exceptional zeal. He became a diligent student of marine 
architecture and engineering, with a view to keeping the ships 
of the firm fully abreast of the most advanced scientific construc- 
tion. About 1873 he became the dominant influence in the firm, 
so far as steamships were concerned. He impressed his asso- 



143 



144 CLEMENT ACTON GRISCOM 

ciates, too, mth liis own conviction that the day of sailing-ships 
was largely past, and that the bulk of the world's commerce 
must thenceforth be carried in vessels propelled by steam. It 
was his ambition to see one of the finest fleets of ocean steamers 
in the world under the American flag. 

An important step toward realizing this ambition was taken 
in 1871, when the old firm of Peter Wright & Sons was reorgan- 
ized into the International Navigation Company. Of this cor- 
poration Mr. Griscom was one of the founders, and the first 
vice-president. Upon the retirement of James A. Wright in 
1888, Mr. Griscom became president of the company, and has 
held that place ever since. Under his management the company 
has grown to occupy a foremost place in the transatlantic trade. 
It began with the four old steamers of the American line, the /w- 
diaua, Winois, Ohio, andPennsj/lvania. Year by year it acquired 
more vessels. It secured nearly all the capital stock and, of 
course, full control of the Red Star Line, operating ten large 
steamers between United States ports and Antwerp. In 1886 Mr. 
Griscom purchased for his comj^any the long-established Inman 
Line, then runniug a fine fieet between New York and Liverpool. 

Then Mr. Griscom set about the execution of some of his own 
ideas concerning naval construction, and the magnificent ocean 
liners New York and Paris were the result. These splendid 
ships, with twill screws, the largest and finest then afloat, 
marked a new era in steam navigation on the Atlantic. Other 
larger vessels have since been built, but they have all drawn 
profitably from the example set by these two. For a time these 
ships had to sail under the British flag, being of foreign con- 
struction. But in 1893 American registry was gi'anted to them 
by special act of Congi-ess, and since then they have borne the 
Stars and Stripes. The next step was to add to the fleet thus 
auspiciously begun, and this was affected in the construction, in 
an Anierican shipyard, of the steamships St. Louis and St. Paid, 
which rank among the swiftest and finest ocean liners afloat. 

Mr. Griscom has been the head and heart of all these impor- 
tant business activities, 1)ut lie has also found time to give to 
other interests. For years he has been a director of the Penn- 
sylvania Raih'oad Company, and of the Bank of North America, 
the Fidehty Insurance Trust and Safe Deposit Company, and 



CLEMENT ACTON GRISCOM 145 

the Western Savings Fund Society, these being among the most 
prominent financial institutions in Philadelphia. He is also a 
director of the Insurance Company of North America, and was 
one of the organizers and for many years president of the 
National Transit Company. He has been conspicuously identi- 
fied with pu])lic affairs in Philadelphia, and for some years was 
a trustee of the City Ice Boats, and for a part of the time presi- 
dent of the board. 

Naturally he has been prominent in maritime affairs, both 
national and international. He was a member of the Inter- 
national Maritime Conference for revising the rules of the road 
at sea, which sat in Washington in 1889-90 and to which 
twenty-eight nations sent representatives. He was some years 
ago elected an honorary member of the British Society of Naval 
Ai'chitects, being only the fourth to receive that honor, the 
others being Lord Kelvin, Grand Duke Constantine of Russia, 
and M. Dupuy de Lome of France. He was also elected the 
first president of the United States Society of Naval Architects 
and Marine Engineering. 

Mr. Grriscom is a member of many clubs and other social 
organizations. These include the Union League Club, Phila- 
delphia, Ritteuhouse, and Farmers', of Philadelphia ; the Union, 
Metropolitan, and New York Yacht, of New York ; the Chicago 
of Chicago ; the Metropolitan of Washington ; and the St. James' 
of London. 

He married Miss Frances Canby Biddle, daughter of William 
C. and Rachel M. Biddle of Philadelphia, and has five children, 
as follows : Helen Biddle Griscom, Clement Acton Clriscom, Jr., 
Rodman Ellison Griscom, Lloyd Carpenter Griscom, and Frances 
Canby Griscom. 

Mr. Griscom has a fine country-seat called " Dolobran," near 
Haverford College, in the subiu'bs of Philadelphia, where he 
finds pleasing rehef fi-om business cares in stock-raising and fine 
farming. 



JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 



THERE have been few careers, in this land of remarkable 
performances, more varied and picturesque than that of 
the subject of the present sketch. From his name one v\^ould 
hesitate to " place " James Ben AU Haggin in any one part of 
the Union, and such hesitancy would be judicious, for, as a 
matter of fact, he belongs to all parts. There would be equal 
reason for hesitancy in naming Mr. Haggin's occupation in life, 
for he has had several, and has been successful in them all. 
He is at once a Kentuckian, a Louisianian, a Californian, and a 
New-Yorker. He is a lawyer, a miner, a real-estate dealer, a 
stock-raiser, a patron of the turf, and a gentleman of leisure. 
IncidentaUy, it may be mentioned that he is a millionaire many 
times over. 

James Ben AU Haggin is a native of the Blue Grass State, 
famous for its brave men, lovely women, and fine horses. He 
was born at Frankfort, Kentucky, in the first third of the 
present century, and received as his second name the maiden 
name of his mother, who was a Miss Adehne Ben Ali. He 
received the education appropriate to a Kentucky gentleman's 
son in those days, and was prepared for and admitted to the 
bar. 

He began the practice of his profession at Natchez, Missis- 
sippi, and continued it at St. Joseph, Missouri, and at New 
Orleans, Louisiana. At the bar he was a commanding figure, 
and his undoubted abihty in both office and coiu't-room work 
gave promise of distinguished success. 

In the flush of his early manhood, however, Mr. Haggin was 
seized with the '49 fever, and made his way from New 
Orleans to California. He was not, however, a prospector or 



146 



JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 147 

a miner at first, but proposed to continue the pi'actice of his 
profession, rightly reckoning that the new and rapidly gTowing 
communities of the Pacific coast, with then- vast financial inter- 
ests, would afford him an unsurpassed field. He practised with 
much success in San Francisco and in Sacramento, and might 
have become the leader of the California bar and a leader in 
political life. 

The gold fever was, however, too much for him. He made 
some investments of his professional earnings in mines, and 
these tm'ned out so well that he was encouraged to invest more 
extensively, and presently to withch-aw from his law practice 
and devote his whole attention to mining and similar enterprises. 

It has often been said of him, and with more than ordinary 
justice, that everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. 
Certainly there were few other mining operators who rivalled his 
success. Among the more important of the mining j^roperties 
which he developed, or in which he has a commanding proprie- 
tary interest, may be mentioned the Homestake, and others at 
the Black Hills, and the great copper-mines at Butte, Montana. 
In the latter he has been associated with Marcus Daly. He 
also owns numerous mines and mining lands in Ai-izona, New 
Mexico, and Mexico. 

Mr. Haggin's law firm in California was originally Haggin, 
Latham & Munson. Later and finally it was Haggin & Tevis, 
his i^artner being the well-known capitalist, Lloyd Tevis. After 
leaving the law, Mr. Haggin retained his association with Mr. 
Tevis, and the two organized the gigantic Kern County Land 
Company of California. This company owned some four hun- 
di"ed thousand acres of land, much of which has been sold, in 
farm lots at from fifty dollars to one hundred dollars an acre. 

A part of this vast domain was appropriated by Mr. Haggin 
himself for his famous Rancho del Pasco. There he became a 
successful agriculturist, making a fortune in the culture of 
hops and fruits. He also raised stock of various kinds, includ- 
ing sheep and cattle, on a great scale and with much success. 

His chief attention, however, as became a son of Kentucky, 
was given to horse-breeding, and his ranch presently became 
famous as one of the chief homes in the world of the best 
thoroughbred racing stock. From the Haggin ranch came, 



148 JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 

year after year, the most noteworthy horses on the American 
turf. The names of Firenzi and Salvator alone attest theii' 
general quality. 

It was in the spring of 1886 that the Haggin stable first began 
to figure on the turf in the eastern part of the United States. At 
that time Mr. Haggin and his son, Ben Ah Haggin, brought East, 
to Kentucky, a lot of choice horses, and entered them in the best 
races. Thereafter the stable was brought on to the New York 
tracks, and for years the Haggin horses were among the fore- 
most on the metropolitan turf. For the promotion of his inter- 
ests on the turf in the East, Mr. Haggin pm^hased the celebrated 
Elmendox-f Farm, near Lexmgton, Kentucky, and there estab- 
lished the greater part of his horse-breeding stables. 

Mr. Haggin was married in early life, while he was yet a 
young lawyer, at Natchez, Mississippi. His bride was Miss Saim- 
ders, the daughter of Colonel Lewis Saimders, one of the fore- 
most lawyers of that region, Mrs. Haggin shared all his jour- 
neys and his triumphs, in the South and on the Pacific coast, 
and was the loyal partner of his joys and sorrows until he was 
about seventy years old, when she died. 

She bore him two sons and two daughters, who grew to ma- 
turity. The daughters both married. One of the sons, Lewis 
Haggin, engaged in business, and still lives and enjoys great pros- 
perity. The other son, Ben Ali Haggin, was his father's partner 
and comrade in the horse-])reediug and racing enterprises. 
Some years ago Ben Ali Haggin and one of his sisters died, 
whereupon Mr. Haggin, aged and bereft, withdrew entu"ely 
from the turf. His colors have since then been seen no more 
in races. But he maintains his farm and ranch, and is still 
devoted to the breeding and raising of thoroughbred stock. 

After Mrs. Haggin's death ]\Ir. Haggin remained for some 
years a widower. At his Kentucky farm and home, however, 
he was thrown into the society of Miss Pearl Voorhies of Ver- 
sailles, Kentucky. She was a niece of his former wife, and a 
young lady of more than usual beauty of person and mind. 
She had been finely educated at Cincinnati, Ohio, and at Staun- 
ton, Virginia, and through her Kentucky life and training was 
in close sympathy with Mr. Haggin's tastes and activities. It 
was not surprising, therefore, that in the fall of 1897 IVIr. Hag- 



JAMES BEN ALI HAGGIN 149 

gin's engagement to marry her was announced, though she was 
Httle more than one thu'd his age. 

The marriage took place at the home of Miss Voorhies's step- 
father, at Versailles, Kentucky, on the afternoon of December 
30, 1897. The couple came on to New York that evening, in 
Mr. Haggin's private railroad car, and have since made their 
home in New York city. 

Mr. Haggin has taken no part in pohtics, though his oppor- 
tunities to do so have been many. He is a favorite figure in 
society, and a welcome associate in the clubs of which he is a 
member. Chief among these are the Union and the Manhattan 
clubs of New York. 




OLIVER HARRIMAN, JR. 



THE name of Harriman has long been conspicuous and hon- 
ored in New York business and social life. OUver Harri- 
man, now retu-ed from active business, was formerly a partner 
in the important firm of Low, Harriman & Co. of Worth 
Street, and was a director of many financial institutions, with 
some of which he is, indeed, still connected. For many years 
he was one of the foremost merchants of New York. He mar- 
ried Miss Laura Low, a member of his partner's family, and the 
bearer of a name well known and highly esteemed in New York 
for many generations. 

Oliver Harriman, Jr., a son of this couple, was born in New 
York on November 29, 1862, and was carefully educated in local 
schools. Thence he was sent to Princeton, where he pursued 
the regular academic course, and was graduated in the class of 
1883. He was a good student and stood well in his class, and 
at the same time greatly excelled in athletic sports and was a 
leader in the social life of the college. While at Princeton he 
was a prominent member of the Ivy Clul). 

On leaving college Mr. Harriman found his inclinations lead- 
ing him toward financial undertakings rather than toward the 
commercial pursuits of his father. He therefore made his way 
to Wall Street, and entered the employ of the well-known 
banking firm of Winslow, Lanier & Co. He remained there for 
five years, being promoted from place to place and serving in 
many capacities. That banking house was an admirable school 
of sound finance, and Mr. Harriman learned its lessons thor- 
oughly and in a most practical manner, and thus prepared him- 
self to engage in the same Inisiness on his own account. 

At that time, 

150 



He took the latter step on January 1, 1888. 




(^^^^ yh^a^a.,^ 



OLIVEB HAKRIMAN, JR. 151 

when he was only a little more than twenty-five years of age, he 
was admitted to the firm of Harriman & Co., bankers and 
brokers. His natural abilities and thorough training were dom- 
inant factors in assuring him success. In addition to the suc- 
cessful conduct of this business, Mr. Harriman has become 
interested in various other enterprises, and is now a trustee of 
the Continental Trust Company of New York. 

Mr. Harriman has neither held nor sought political office, 
though he has taken a good citizen's interest in the welfare of 
the city, State, and nation. He has had an extended career in 
the National Gfuard of New York, beginning in April, 1888, 
when he entered that service as a second lieutenant of Company 
F of the Eighth Regiment. He was appointed, in 1894, an aide- 
de-camp to General Louis Fitzgerald, commander of the First 
Brigade of the New York State National Guard, and in 1895 
was made commissary of subsistence, with the rank of major. 

Mr. Harriman is a familiar and welcome figure in the best 
society of New York. He is a member of various organizations, ' 
including the University, Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, and New 
York Yacht clubs of New York, and the Westchester Country 
Chib. His fondness for out-of-door sports, which was conspicu- 
ous at Princeton, has been maintained, and he is a recognized 
leader in social diversions of that character. 

He was married, on January 28, 1891, to Miss Grace Carley of 
Louisville, Kentucky, a member of one of the leading families 
of that city. Mr. and Mrs. Harriman now have one son, who 
bears the name of Oliver Carley Harriman. They have a home 
in New York city, and a summer residence near White Plains, 
in Westchester County. 




NORMAN WAITE HARRIS 



"TVj'OT only in Chicago but all through the West the Chicago 
^^ banking house of N. W. Harris & Co. is known as one of the 
foremost, indeed the foremost, in its important specialty, namely, 
dealing in municipal bonds. The founder and head of that house 
is Norman Waite Harris, a native of Becket, Massachusetts. That 
town was founded l)y his mother's great-grandfather. His pa- 
ternal great-grandfather came from France, and was a soldier 
in the Revolutionary War. Another ancestor was Thomas 
Waite, one of the judges who signed the death-warrant of 
Charles I. The father of Mr. Harris is Nathan Waite Harris, 
formerly a prosperous farmer, who is still living at Becket. The 
maiden name of his mother was C. Emmeline Wadsworth, and 
she was descended from Christopher Wadsworth, who came 
from England to Massachusetts in 1G32. 

Mr. Harris was born at Becket on August 15, 1846, and 
received a good education. At eighteen years of age he became 
a life-insui*ance solicitor in Cincinnati. Two years later he 
became general agent of the Equitable Life Assm-ance Society 
in that city. In that same year he organized the Union Central 
Life Insiu-ance Society of Cincinnati, and was for thh'teen years 
its secretary and general manager. Then he sold out his inter- 
ests, being the largest individual stockholder in the company, 
and the company then next to the largest in the West. He 
then went to Europe for rest and restoration of health. 

He returned from Europe in 1881, and settled in Chicago, 
where he organized his banking house, which at once took a 
commanding rank among such institutions. He opened branch 
oftices in New York and Boston, and soon built up a fine busi- 
ness in each of those cities, so that the field of his activities now 

152 



.-^-''« 



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A 




^^^ 



^*^ 




NOEMAN WAITE HAERIS 153 

covers practicaUy the whole financial field of the United States. 
His business amounts to over fifty million dollars a year, 
chiefly in national, State, county, and city bonds, and other 
first-class securities. 

Mr. Harris is trustee of the Northwestern University and of the 
Wesley Hospital. He has taken especial interest in the work of 
training deaconesses and nurses to labor among the sick and 
poor, and also to the sending out of missionaries for such labor 
in foreign lands. He gave a block of land in Chicago for the 
Chicago Training School, upon which now stands Han-is Hall 
with accommodations for one hundred and fifty students. He 
has also given funds for another building on the same land with 
one hundred and forty-three rooms. This school, which has 
been organized on a self-supporting basis, has sent out more 
than five hundred trauaed workers. Mr. Harris was the first 
president of the board of trustees of St. James's Methodist 
Episcopal Church of Chicago, and still holds the place. He was 
one of the organizei-s of that church, and contributed one fourth 
of the cost of its fine building. 

Mr. Harris has visited Europe five times, and has made an 
extended tour in Africa and other parts of the world. He is a 
member of the Union League Ch;b of Chicago, and the Bankers' 
Club, University Club, Kenwood Club, Chicago Club, and Quad- 
rangle Club, in the same city, besides several clubs in New York. 

He was married on January 1, 1867, to Miss Grace Vallandig- 
ham of Cincinnati, who died in 1874. In 1879 he was again 
married to Miss Emma S. Gale, daughter of Dr. J. G. Gale of 
Newton, New Hamj)shu"e, and a great-great-granddaughter of 
Josiah Bartlett, one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. They have four sous and one daughter, and occupy 
a handsome stone mansion on Drexel Boulevard, Chicago, which 
contains one of the finest art collectious in that city. 



<si^ 




LYNDE HARRISON 

IYNDE HARRISON of New Haven was born in that city 
J on December 15, 1837, where he was reared and educated. 
His father, James Harrison, went to Augusta, Georgia, at the age 
of eighteen years, and remained there until past middle life, en- 
gaged in business as a merchant and banker. Thomas Harrison, 
one of his paternal ancestors, was one of the first settlers in the 
New Haven Colony, representing Branford in the Colonial As- 
sembly after Branford had recognized the Connecticut charter 
which united the Hartford and New Haven colonies. His pa- 
ternal grandmother, Sarah Wolcott, was descended from Gov- 
ernor Roger Wolcott, Colonial Governor of Connecticut, and 
from Dr. Alexander Wolcott, a prominent patriot leader during 
the Revolution, and she was a niece of Oliver Wolcott, a signer 
of the Declaration of Independence. His mother's father, John 
Hart Lynde, was born in Saybrook, but, after graduation from 
Yale College, settled in New Haven as a practising lawyer, where 
he died in 1817. He was a descendant of Judge Nathaniel 
Lynde of Saybrook, and of Judge Simon Lynde, one of the first 
settlers of Boston. The mother of John Hart Lynde, Rebecca 
Hart, was descended from Thomas Hart of Farmington, who 
was for many years Speaker of the Colonial Assembly. The 
ancestors of Mr. Harrison were all of English blood. He was 
educated in the public schools of New Haven, the grammar 
school, and Russell's Military Institute. Subsequently he taught 
school for two or three years, and then entered the Yale Law 
School, from which he was gi'aduated in 1860. He was admitted 
to the bar in 1861, and soon afterward opened a law office in 
New Haven. 

Early in his life he became interested, as a Republican, in 

154 




.^fSS^ 






I 





2^^^, 



LTNDE HAERISON 155 

politics, and he was elected clerk of the House of Representa- 
tives in 1862-63, and clerk of the Senate in 1864. In 1865 he 
was elected to the State Senate, and was reelected in 1866. 
From 1871 to 1874 he served as judge of the City Court of New 
Haven, to which position he was elected by the Legislature. 
He has had, for nearly thu'ty years, a summer home and legal 
residence in the town of Guilford, and he represented that town 
in the House of Representatives in 1874-77 and in 1881. He was 
Speaker of the House in 1877, and chairman of the Judiciary 
Committee in 1881, being by virtue of that position leader of 
the majority party. He served on the Republican State Central 
Committee for several years, and was chairman of that com- 
mittee in 1875-76. In 1877 he was elected by the Legislature 
judge of the Court of Common Pleas for the County of New 
Haven, and he held that office until 1881, when he declined re- 
election, and since that time he has devoted himself closely and 
continuously to the practice of his profession, except that in 
1884 he accepted the office of chairman of the Republican State 
Central Committee. 

While he was in the General Assembly he served several 
times on the Judiciary Committee and took part in much im- 
portant legislation. He was chairman during three years of the 
Committee on Constitutional Amendments, and as such secured 
the adoption of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, Seventeenth, Eigli- 
teenth, Nineteenth, Twentieth, Twenty-first, Twenty-second, 
Twenty-third, Twenty-fourth, and Twenty-fifth amendments to 
the Constitution of the State. He also drafted and advocated 
the adoption of the Twenty-seventh Amendment in 1883. These 
amendments change the time of elections from April to Novem- 
ber ; fix the length of terms of executive, legislative, and judicial 
officers ; modify the method of representation in the lower house 
to the extent that no new town is entitled to representation 
in the Legislatm-e unless it has at least twenty-five hundred 
inhabitants ; forbid the payment of extra compensation to pubUc 
officers during their tenn of office ; and prohiljit pubhc funds 
being devoted to the construction of railroads. While Speaker 
in 1877 he left the chair and made an earnest speech in favor of 
the statute of that year putting married women upon an equahty 
with their husbands in relation to the ownership and control of 



156 LYNDE HARRISON 

their own property. Under this law married women in Con- 
necticut control absolutely their own property during cover- 
ture. At the decease of either, the law provides that neither 
the husband can be deprived by the wife, nor the wife be de- 
prived by the husband, of the life use of at least one third of the 
entire estate. At the time the law was passed there was much 
serious opposition to it, but no attempt has been made since 
1877 to repeal it. 

Mr. Harrison was a member of the Republican National Con- 
ventions of 1876 and 1880, and as such he warmly supported in 
the conventions the nominations of Mr. Hayes at Cincinnati, 
and Greneral Garfield at Chicago. He has voted for every 
Republican candidate for President since his first vote for 
Abraham Lincoln in 1860 down to and including 1900, except 
that he voted for Grover Cleveland in 1892, because he objected 
to the tariff and financial policy of the Republican party in 
1890, especially the Sherman Silver Act, and the provision in 
the tariff act of 1890 putting sugar on the free list. Mr. Harrison 
believes that upon the issues of sound ciuTency and other issues 
before the country at the opening of the twentieth century the 
Republican party is the party which should receive the support 
of men who desu'e the best interests of their country ; but, uath 
the exception of his woi*k diu-ing the campaign of 1884 for 
Blaine, Mr. Harrison has taken no active part in politics, nor 
held any office since 1881. 

For the past twenty years he has been engaged principally in 
corporation and estate affairs. He is counsel for and director 
in several corporations at the present time; he is an executor 
and trustee of the H. B. Plant estate, and general counsel of the 
Henry Bradley Plant Company, the Plant Investment Company, 
the Southern Express Company, and the Consohdated Lake 
Superior Company. The Plant Investment Company controls 
and operates the Plant system of raih-oads and the steamship 
lines connected therewith. The Consolidated Lake Superior 
Company is the corporation which controls the development of 
the water-power of Lake Superior at Saulf Ste. Marie, and the 
various manufacturing industries connected therewith. His 
time is mainly occupied with work for the Plant estate and the 
foui" last-named corporations, and he has offices in the Exchange 



LYNDE HAKEISON 157 

Building, Church Sti-eet, New Haven, and at No. 12 West 
Twenty-third Street, New York city. 

Mr. Harrison's first wife was Miss Sara Plant of Branford, a 
niece of Henry B. Plant. She died in 1879, and he married in 
1886 Miss Harriet S. White of Waterbmy. His chikh-en are 
William Lynde, Paul Wolcott, Gertrude Plant, and Katherine 
White Harrison. His New Haven house is on Hillhouse Avenue, 
and he has a beautiful summer residence known as " Bayhurst " 
in the town of Guilford on the shore of Long Island Sound. 

Mr. Han-ison is a member of the Union League Club, the 
Graduate Club, the Young Men's Republican Club, and the 
Country Club of New Haven ; the Hartford Club, the Sachem's 
Head Yacht Club ; and the Reform Club, the Republican Club, 
and the Yale Club of New York. During the last fifteen years 
he has made frequent trips to Europe with his family. 

Upright and honorable in all transactions, public and private, 
an open foe to knavery, whatever its guise, and wholly indifferent 
to hostile criticism when serving the puldic weal or private duty, 
Judge Harrison is a man held in high esteem even by those who 
are for the time being opposed to him. He is a gentleman of 
varied and substantial attainments as a scholar, possesses warm 
social instincts and a kindly nature, is a true friend, and devoid 
of ostentation either in public or private life. 




HENRY J. HEINZ 



HENRY J. HEINZ of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, occupies a 
prominent place among business men who have achieved 
success of a high order. All over this country and across the sea 
he is recognized as the leader in his chosen line of business. He 
began the manufacture of pickles and condiments in 1869 in a 
small room of a two-story building in Sharpsbm-g, a suburb of 
Pittsburg, to which city, in 1871, the business was removed, 
occupying a large four-story building. The rapid development 
of these first years has continued until the present. The main 
plant in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, with its nine branch factories 
in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Michigan, Iowa, Indiana, and 
Canada, now have a floor-space of thirty-five acres. The firm, 
of which Mr. Heinz is the head, uses annually the product of 
fifteen thousand acres of land ; it has vegetable and seed farms 
in Pennsylvania, New York, Indiana, and Iowa ; it has branch 
houses for the distribution of its products in all the principal 
cities in the United States and Canada, and in London ; it has 
agencies in Mexico, South America, on the continent of Europe, 
in Australia and Afi'ica. It employs more than three hundred 
traveling salesmen in the United States and thirty-five in Great 
Britain; in its pickle, vinegar, glass, and box factories, it 
employs regularly more than two thousand people, and during 
the harvesting season an additional force of from fifteen thou- 
sand to twenty thousand is required to care for the vegetables 
and fruits which it uses. 

The rapid growth and magnitude of the business are not more 
remarkable than its humane and philanthropic characteristics. 
Mr. Heinz believes that heart-power is an essential factor in 
securing true business success. He has succeeded in establish- 
ing an almost ideal relationship between employer and employees, 



158 




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HENRY J. HEINZ 159 

iu eliminating strikes, and in developing a high degree of mutual 
sympathy and kindly interest in all connected with his business. 

K a stranger were to come into the employees' commodious 
and comfortable dining-rooms of the main plant in Pittsl>urg at 
the noon-hour, where more than four hundred girls eat their 
luncheons, look at the walls so handsomely decorated with paint- 
ings and engravings, and listen to the music, he could very 
easily beheve that he was m the dining-hall of a first-class board- 
ing-school. In another building a cheerfid and comfortable 
dining-hall is provided for the male employees. We could 
scarcely find a Young Women's Christian Association in any of 
our large cities so well equipped with bath-rooms, libraries, and 
other facihties for impro\ang both mind and body as is this 
industrial estabhshment. In another building there is a hand- 
some auditorium with a seating capacity of over fifteen hundred, 
furnished with opera- chah's, where free lectui-es on interesting 
subjects are given frequently to the employees, and where they 
themselves may hold entertainments from time to time. Classes 
have been formed, also, under a competent musical director, 
affording special opportunities, free of charge, to those who may 
have musical talent. An interesting featm'e of this plant is two 
roof -gardens, one one hundred by one Inmdred and seventy feet, 
the other one hundred by one hundred and eighty feet, one of 
which is for the exclusive use of the women employees, and has a 
handsome conservatory, thus mtroducing into the humdi-um 
existence of factoiy hfe the freshness and beauty of nature. 

But what of the man who originated and developed this ideal 
industrial establishment? Henry J. Heinz, the son of Henry 
and Anna M. (Schmidt) Heinz, was born in Pittsburg on Octo- 
ber 11, 1814. He grew to manhood in the home of his parents, 
assisting his father iu the manufacture of brick, and also engag- 
ing successfully in vegetable-gardening. Henry's mother was a 
veiy remarkable example of Christian faith and homely wisdom. 
Besides the education of the public schools and a business-col- 
lege training, Mr. Heinz has so employed his talents in the 
broader school of life, amplified by reading and travel, as to 
secure that self-culture which is the highest style of education. 
His interest in higher education is indicated by the fact that he 
has been largely instrumental in founding, and is one of the 



160 HENEY J. HEINZ 

chief supporters of, the Kansas City University, having also 
been president of the board of trustees of that institution from 
its beginning. He also served two terms as a member of the 
Board of Education of Sharpsbui'g, when residing there, and 
the last term was chosen president of the board. 

In September, 1869, he man'ied Miss Sallie Sloan Young, an 
intelligent, vivacious, amiable Christian woman. Her cheerful 
disposition, her great-heartedness and practical common sense 
made the new home an inspiration. In this home he foimd 
encouragement, rest when weary, and help always. 

Mr. Heinz is about as widely and favorably known for his 
success and zeal in Sunday-school work as for bis business 
enterprise. For twenty-one years he was a practical and suc- 
cessful Sunday-school superintendent. He is now president of 
the Allegheny County Sunday-school Association, chairman of 
the executive committee of the Pemisylvania State Sunday- 
school Association, and has been a delegate to two World's and 
several International Sunday-school conventions, and has been 
a delegate to annual and general conferences of the church. 

Mr. Heinz is one of the pulilic-spirited men of his city, and 
has been an aggressive leader in numerous enterprises intended 
to promote its welfare. He is a director of the Chamber of 
Commerce, and was one of the founders and is now vice-presi- 
dent of the "Western Pennsylvania Exposition Society, organized 
purely in the interests of the j^eople of western Pennsylvania, 
and one of the most successfully conducted enterprises of this 
character in the country. 

Mr. Heinz was one of the organizers and is vice-president of 
the Central Accident Insurance Company of Pittsburg. He was 
one of the promoters and is president of the Aspinwall Land 
Company, an organization that has founded one of the most 
handsome subm'bs of Pittsbiu'g. During all of his career Mr. 
Heinz has alwaj's taken an advanced position on the social prob- 
lem of the proper relation between employer and employee, and 
in working out its solution be has not hesitated to depart from 
the beaten paths, but has introduced new methods, which are 
already exerting a wide-spread influence in leading to the introduc- 
tion of the principles of practical Christianity in the industrial 
world. 





f/l/MB^^^^'^^^ 



SAMUEL ALEXANDER HENSZEY 

OAMUEL ALEXANDER HENSZEY, who is pursuing au 
^ eminently successful career as a railroad manager and coal 
operator, comes of mingled French and English ancestry His 
progenitors were for several generaticns suljstautial and re- 
spected citizens of the city of Philadelphia, and were identified 
with the Society of Friends. 

His father, Joseph George Henszey, was of French descent 
and was a son of Sanuiel Grouch Henszey, who was for many 
years treasurer of the Western Savings Fund of Philadelphia 
and of Priscilla (Harrison) Henszey, who was eminent in her 
day as a philanthropist. Mr. Henszey 's mother, whose maiden 
name was Rebecca Price Knight, came of English stock, and was 
the daughter of the eminent physician and traveler, Dr Alex- 
ander Knight, and of Mary Knight, who was also a philan- 
thropist. 

Of such parentage and ancestry Mr. Henszey was born in 
Philadelphia on February 16, 1854, and was thoroughly edu- 
cated m some of the excellent private schools of that city. 'At an 
early age he showed a decided liking and aptitude for railroad 
and mining work, and this tendency was encouraged through the 
circumstances that his school vacations were spent in northern 
Michigan, where his father had large iron and copper mining 
interests. In this way the whole trend of his business life wa^ 
determined. 

At the age of sixteen Mr. Henszey entered the office of the 
Philadelphia & Reading Railroad Gompany, and subsequently 
that of the North Pennsylvania Railroad in Philadelphia, where 
he manifested the qualities which make for success, and rose suc- 
cessively through various grades of service. Later he was made 

161 



162 SAMUEL ALEXANDER HENSZEY 

secretary of the Springfield, Jackson & Pomeroy Eailroad, tlien 
assistant to the president and also purchasing agent of the 
Bound Brook route between Philadelphia and New York, and 
finally vice-president and general manager of the Arizona Cen- 
tral Railway. In the latter place he had charge of the building 
of the railroad now operated as the Maricopa & Phoenix and the 
Santa Fe, Prescott & Pho?nix. 

In 1887 Mr. Henszey was induced to leave Arizona and to 
take hold of the Egypt coal-mines in North Carolina, which had 
given promise of great wealth, l)ut which had been dismantled 
and abandoned during the Civil War and had not yet ]>een 
restored to prosperity. In spite of great difficulties and dis- 
couragements, including a series of fires and other disasters, 
he got the mines into working order, only to find that their pros- 
perity could not be fully assured without the building of an inde- 
pendent railroad to tidewater. He thereupon organized the 
Egyjit Railway, and l)uilt and equipped it from the mines to 
Colon and to Cumnock, comiecting at those points with trunk 
lines. 

That done, Mr. Henszey went on with the organization of the 
Raleigh & Western Railway, and is now engaged in building it 
across the State of North Carolina, from tidewater at the east 
to the Virginia line at the northwest. Thus he became the con- 
trolling head of a highly profitable railroad and of a coal-miue 
of exceptional richness and value, far removed from any com- 
petitor. The mine provides the railroad with sufficient freigkt 
to make it pay handsomely and indei:)endently of any other 
patronage, while the railroad enaljles the output of the mine to 
be marketed to the best possible advantage. 

Mr. Henszey has never sought political office, and has held 
few public places. While in Arizona, however, he was com- 
missioned by the Governor to represent that Territory at the 
cele])ration of the centenary of the Constitution in Philadel- 
phia. A few years later, having become identified with North 
Carolina and its interests, he was appointed by the Governor a 
delegate to the first International Mining Congress at Denver, 
Colorado. 

He now makes his home in New York, where he is a member 
of the Pennsylvania Society, of the Metropolitan Musemn of 



SAMUEL ALEXANDER HENSZEY 



163 



Art, and of the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. He is a member and a warden of St. Andrew's Protes- 
tant Episcopal Church, Stateu Island. He has three children 
b}' his first marriage— Mary Rebecca Price, Josephine Ger- 
trvide, and Samuel xilexander. 

His present wife was formerly Miss Katherine Kirby ^^ite, 
and to her inspiring companionship and valuable judgment as 
an adviser he attributes a large measure of the success which has 
cro^^^led his efforts in his various and arduous business enter- 
prises. 




GEORGE B. HILL 

GEORGE B HILL, son of John and Elizabeth Ricliards 
(Burton) HiU, was bom on August 1, 1847, at Wheeling, 
West Virginia, and was educated in the public schools of that 
citv At the age of twenty-one years he went to Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania, and there engaged in business as a tobacco broker. 
Later he added to his business that of a mortgage and note 

The latter department of his business gradually led him into 
purely financial operations. In September, 1872, in conjunction 
tithhis brother, James N. Hill, then of Dubuque, Iowa, and C. 
H Love of Pittsburg, he opened a private bankmg institution 
under the name of George B. Hill & Co. This yentm-e began 
with high promise, but the failure of Jay Cooke and the resulting 
panic of 1873 caused it heavy losses, and m July, 18/4, the hrm 
was obliged to suspend. 

His next undertaking was the building of the Grayville & 
Mattoon Railroad in Illinois, and the next year he returned to 
Pittsburg and reopened his brokerage business, adding to it the 
business of dealing in stocks and bonds. In this he was success- 
fid, and his business increased rapidly in scope and profits. In 
Jvme 1881, he took into partnership with hun William I. Mustm, 
who had been his clerk for several years, and the firm was agam 
known as George B. Hill & Co. In 1885 John D. Nicholson, 
Mr Hills brother-in-law, was also taken into the firm, bringing 
with liim a large chentage. This firm had a profitable career, 
and was engaged in many of the most important financial opera- 
tions in and about Pittsburg. Among these were the purchase 
and reconstruction of the Pittsburg, Allegheny & Manchester 
Passenger Railway, of which JMi-. HiU became president : the 

16i 





(^6', 




3 



GEORGE B. HILL 165 

consolidation of most of tlie Pittsburg street railways into the 
Consolidation Traction Company, and those of adjacent cities 
and towns into the United Traction Company ; the consolida- 
tion of twenty leading breweries into the Pittsbm-g Brewing 
Company, with $20,000,000 capital ; and the organization of one 
hundred coal-dealers into the Pittsburg Coal Company, with 
$64,000,000 capital. 

The last two operations were effected by Mr. Hill's firm in 
conjimction with Messrs. Moore & Schley of New York, be- 
tween which two fiiTns a close relationship long existed. Mr. 
Hill's firm had relations also with varioiis other leading firms in 
New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Boston, and enjoyed a 
high standing and wide influence in the financial world. In 
addition to the business aheady noted, Mr. Hill was a dhector of 
the Second National Bank of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, of 
the Third National Bank of Pittsburg, and of the Standard Un- 
dergi'ound Cable Company of Pittsburg, and a trustee of the 
Pittsbui'g Bank for Savings and the Dollar Savings and Trust 
Company of Allegheny City. 

Mr. Hill took some active interest in poHtics, but never held 
nor sought public office. He was a member of the Duquesne, 
Americus Republican, and Mozart clubs of Pittsbm-g, the last- 
named being a musical organization, to which art Mr. HiU was 
much devoted. He was also a member of the Masonic order, and 
of the Pmst United Presbyterian Church of Pittsburg, and was 
well known for his liberal support of religious and benevolent 
enteritises. He was ranked among his fellow-citizens as a mil- 
honaire, but above that as a man of integrity, cultiu'e, and ster- 
ling worth. 

Mr. Hill was married on November 1, 1870, to Miss Maggie J. 
Nicholson, daughter of Leonidas Nicholson, and had one son, 
who is engaged in the electrical contracting business. Mr. Hill 
died in the closing weeks of 1900. 



THOMAS GRISWOLD HILLHOUSE 



THOMAS GRISWOLD HILLHOUSE, lawyer, is descended 
from John Hillhouse of Freehall, County Londonderry, 
Ireland, whose son, the Rev. James Hillhouse, came to this 
country in the seventeenth century and founded the Hillhouse 
family of Connecticut and New York. The Rev. James Hill- 
house married a granddaughter of Captain John Mason, the 
"• Indian-killer," and had a son, William Hillhouse, who was for 
many years a member of the Connecticut Legislature, a member 
of the Continental Congress, and a major in the Revolutionary 
army. The wife of William Hillhouse was Sarah Griswold, a 
sister of Matthew Griswold, Governor of Connecticiat. Their 
son Thomas Hillhouse removed from Connecticut to New York 
State and settled near Albany, where he married Ann Van 
Schaick Ten Broek, daughter of John Cornelius Ten Broek, a 
Revolutionary patriot and one of the founders of the Order of 
the Cincinnati. Mr. and Mrs. Hillhouse made their home at 
Walnut Grove, Watervliet, New York, on what had been a part 
of the old Van Rensselaer manor. 

The eldest son of this couple, born at Walnut Grove in 1816, 
was Thomas Hillhouse, a man of distinguished career in State and 
national affairs. He removed from Watervliet to Geneva, New 
York, in 1851, and later made his home in New York city. In 
1856 he helped to organize the Repubhcan party, and was a strong 
supporter of Fremont for the Presidency. Three years later he 
was elected as State Senator. Governor Morgan made him ad- 
jutant-general in 1861, and he filled that place for two yeai's, in 
which time he organized 200,000 men for the Federal army. 
President Lincoln appointed him assistant adjiitant-general of 
Volunteers. He was Controller of the State of New York in 



1(10 





p^^ 

V 



^ 




^i 



,u^^. 



^€ 



THOMAS GRISWOLD HILLHOUSE 167 

1865-66, and in that office aided materially in the foundation of 
Cornell University. In 1870 he was appointed by President 
Grant Assistant Treasurer of the United States at New York, 
and he filled that important office with great success until 1882. 
In the latter year he foimded the MetropoUtan Trust Company 
of New York, and was its president for the remainder of his life. 
He died in 1897. 

General Hillhouse was married, in 1814, to Harriet Prouty, 
daughter of Phineas Prouty, and a descendant of the Van Vran- 
kens, Ai-nolds, Angells, Comstocks, and other well-known New 
England families. Their second child and oldest son, Thomas 
Griswold Hillhouse, is the subject of the present sketch. He was 
born at Geneva, New York, on January 23, 1818, and was care- 
fully educated at the Peekskill Military School, at Union Col- 
lege, class of 1869, and at the Albany Law School, class of 1870. 

Having thus prepared himself for the practice of the law, Mr. 
Hillhouse settled in New York city, and entered the office of 
George Bliss, afterward United States District Attorney, where 
he remained for two years. Then he formed a partnership with 
George B. Mon-is, which lasted for several years, after which he 
practised his profession alone until 1880. In the last-named 
year the law firm of Hegeman, Buel, Hillhouse & Whiting was 
organized, of which he became one of the partners, remaining 
with it, however, for only a short time. When the Metropolitan 
Trust Company was formed under his father's presidency in 
1882, he retired from the firm and became counsel for the Trust 
Company, a connection which he maintained until 1898. Since 
the latter date he has practised his profession alone. 

Mr. Hillhouse is a dii-ector in various corporations. He for- 
merly belonged to some of the principal clubs of New York, but 
retired from them on his removal of his home from the city. He 
is still, however, a member of the Aiuerican Geogi-aphical Society. 
He was married in June, 1871, to Miss Juha Ten Eyck, daughter 
of the late Senator John C. Ten Eyck of New Jersey. 




EDWARD MINES 



THE development of the lumber trade in Chicago has brought 
to the front many of the city's most active, prominent, 
and reputable citizens. It is a conunon circmnstauce to meet 
there men who have grown uj) in the bvisiuess and who are fa- 
miliar with every i)hase of the trade from office boy to president 
and general manager, and these practical men take the greatest 
jjleasure in recounting the trying experiences of their careers, 
particularh^ during the time of the first remarkable advances 
in the local Imnber trade. 

At the corner of Blue Island Avenue and Lincoln Street are 
the large yards, offices, sheds, and mills of the Edward Hines 
Lumber Company, one of tlie most promising and prosperous 
concerns in this branch of industry of the city. The organiza- 
tion of this company is due solely to the energy and enterprise of 
Edward Hines, the yoimgest luml)erman in Chicago to occupy 
so responsil)le a i^osition. He was the organizer and is the 
j)resent president and treasurer, and is, of course, the general 
manager. He was born in Buffalo, New York, on Jul}^ 31, 1863, 
the eldest of seven children, and the only son of Peter and Rose 
(McGarry) Hines, both of whom were natives of the Emerald 
Isle. The parents settled in Chicago in 1865, and there they still 
reside. Edward was reared and educated in that city, attending 
the pviblic schools until the age of fourteen years, when he be- 
came "tally boy" for the luml)er firm of Fisher & Brother at a 
salary of four dollars per week. After a few months he left this 
company and accepted a position with S. K. jNIartin & Co., with 
whom he remained for fourteen years. At first he served in the 
capacity of office boy, and was steadily promoted through va- 

1G8 




% 




EDWARD HINES 169 

rious grades of office ^YOl•k until he 1)ecame bookkeeper and gen- 
eral office man, and finally, for four j-ears, traveling salesman, 
in all of which capacities he exhibited marked fitness for the 
business and grew steadily in the favor of his employers. He 
was industrious and saving, and at the end of fourteen years had 
accumulated a fair sum of money. 

In 1884, when the corporation of the S. K. Martin Lvmiber Com- 
pany was formed, so great was the confidence of Mr. Martin in 
liim that he was made a partner in the business, and was elected 
secretary and treasurer. Previous to this date he had worked on 
a salary, but had managed to save and invest most of it. He 
officiated in the responsible doul^le position of secretary and 
treasurer imtil April 15, 1892, when he retired from the com- 
pany and at once organized the Edward Hines Lmiiber Com- 
pany, with himself as president and treasurer, L. L. Barth, vice- 
president, and C. F. Wiehe, secretary. All are men of sound 
business judgment and good executive ability, but it is no dis- 
paragement to his coadjutors to assert that the master mind 
and controlling spirit in what is conceded to l)e the most exten- 
sive strictly yard business in lumber in the world is Mr. Hines. 
His life history is an instance of what pluck, enterprise, and 
fix;it3" of purpose can accomplish for a young man. He has 
climbed to the top of the ladder even before reaching the me- 
ridian of life, and has without doul)t made a most remarkable 
record. The Edward Hines Luml)er Company ship large quan- 
tities of lumber, lath, shingles, and pickets, and make a specialty 
of the higher grades of lumber and shingles. Their sales for 
the year 1899 reached the enormous quantity of 273,1:69,767 feet, 
over twice, and very nearly three times, the amount of lumber 
ever shipj^ed by any one concern in one year, not alone in this 
eoimtry, but the entire world. Its materials are sold and 
shipped from INIaine to Mexico. 




WILLIAM BUTLER HORNBLOWER 



THE first American member of the Hornblower family was 
Josiah Hornblower, an eminent Englisb civil engineer who, 
at the request of Colonel John Schuyler, came to this coun- 
try in 1753. He became the manager of some copper-mines 
at Belleville, New Jersey, and there set up the first stationary 
steam-engine in America. He was a captain in the French 
and Indian War, a vigorous patriot in the Revolution. There- 
after he was Speaker of the Lower House of the New Jersey 
Legislature, a State Senator, a member of Congress, and a jus- 
tice of the Court of Common Pleas in New Jersey. His son, 
Joseph C. Hornblower, was a lawj'er by profession. He was a 
Presidential Elector in 1820, chief justice of the State of New 
Jersey in 1832, member of the Constitutional Convention of 
1841, professor of law at Princeton in 1847, vice-president of 
the fii'st Republican National Convention in 1856, president of 
the New Jersey Electoral College in 1860, and one of the foun- 
ders of the American Bible Society. His son, William Henry 
Hornblower, was a prominent Presbj'lerian clergyman, a mis- 
sionary, pastor of a church at Paterson, New Jersey, for 
twenty-seven years, and professor in the Theological Seminary 
at Allegheny, Pennsylvania, for twelve years. He married 
Mathilda Butler of Suffield, Connecticut, a woman of Puritan 
ancestry. 

William Butler Hornblower, the second son of this last-named 
couple, was born at Paterson, New Jersey, in 1851. He was 
educated at the CoUegiate School of Professor Quackenbos ; then 
at Princeton, where be was graduated in 1871 ; and at the Law 
School of Columbia College, where he was graduated in 1875. 
Between leaving Princeton and entering Columbia he spent two 



170 





'.7->^^^^ 



WILLIAM BUTLER HOKNBLOWER 171 

years in literary studies. In 1875 he was admitted to practise 
law at the bar of New York, and became connected with the 
fii'm of Carter & Eaton, with which he remained until 1888. 
In that year he fonned the new firm of Hornblower & Byi-ne, 
which later became Hornblower, Byrne & Taylor. 

Mr. Hornblower has long been one of the most successful 
lawyers of New York. Since 1880 he has been counsel for 
the New York Life Insurance Company. He was counsel for 
the receiver in the famous Grant & Ward bankruptcy cases, 
and has made a specialty of bankruptcy cases and insurance 
suits. His practice in the federal courts has been extensive, 
and among the cases in which he has appeared may be named 
the Virginia bond controversy, and railroad bond cases of the 
city of New Orleans. 

Mr. Hornblower has long taken an active interest in politics 
as an independent Democrat. He has on more than one occa- 
sion been among the foremost leaders of his party in this State, 
especially during the administrations of President Cleveland, of 
whom he was an earnest supporter. He also took a prominent 
part in the sound-money campaign in 1896. He has often been 
suggested as a fitting candidate for office, and in 1893 was nomi- 
nated by President Cleveland for a place on the bench of the Su- 
preme Court of the United States. His fitness for the place was 
universally conceded, but his independence in poMtics had dis- 
pleased some party leaders, and his nomination was not con- 
fii-med. 

He married, in 1882, Miss Susan C. Sanford of New Haven, 
Connecticut, a woman of Puritan descent, who died in 1886, 
leaving him three children. In 1894 he married Mrs. Emily 
Sanford Nelson, a sister of his first wife and widow of Colonel 
A. D. Nelson, U. S. A. His home in this city is on Madison 
Avenue, and his summer home is Penrhyn, Southampton, Long 
Island. He is a member of the Metropolitan Club and the 
Bar Association, and of various other social and pl'ofessional 
organizations. 



HARRY L. HORTON 

HARRY L. HORTON comes of ancient Englisli ancestry, 
which may he traced to the days of the Normau Conquest. 
His last Eughsh ancestor was Joseph Horton, Esquire, a landed 
proprietor of Mousely, Leicestershire, England. A son of Joseph 
Horton, by name Barnabas Horton, and a stanch Puritan, sailed 
on the ship Swallow in 1638, and landed at Hampton, Massachu- 
setts. In October, 1640, with a few other comrades fi'om New 
Haven, where he had been living for a few months, he crossed 
over the Soimd to Long Island and founded the town of 
Southold, where the family lived for several generations. 

The direct ancestors of Harry L. Horton made a settlement in 
Bradford County, Pennsylvania, and there, at Sheshequin, on 
JiUy 17, 1832, he was born. He was the son of a prosperous 
farmer, and received in school a common EngUsh education, 
while his active, out-of-doors life gave him a robust physical 
development. ^Yhen, therefore, at the age of seventeen years, 
he left home to enter business life, he was a strong, well-bal- 
anced and self-reliant youth. 

His fii-st engagement was as a clerk in the general store of 
D. Brink & Son, at Horn Brook, Pennsylvania. There, and in 
other stores in that part of the State, he spent five years, in which 
time he gained much valuable knowledge of business ways and 
means, and an added experience and discipline. Then, leaving 
his native place, he went on a prospecting tour through the 
Northwest, and in 1856 settled at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as a 
member of the firm of Cole & Horton, commission dealers in 
grain. Milwaukee was at that time one of the chief grain 
markets of the West, and afforded a fine field in which the young 
man might expend his energy and gratify his ambition. For 

172 



HABKY L. HOETON 173 

nine years the firm, first of Cole & Hortou, then of Cole, Horton 
& Co., and finally of Horton & Fowler, pursued a prosperous 
career and played an important part in the upbuikhug of the 
city of Milwaukee. Mr. Horton was a prominent member of 
the Milwaukee Board of Trade, and ranked among the foremost 
business men and citizens of the city. 

The larger field of New York invited him, however, and in 
1865 he transferred his activities tliither. He at once established 
himself in Wall Street as a banker and broker, and it was not 
long before the firm of H. L. Horton & Co. was one of the best 
and most respected in the whole financial district. Such a posi- 
tion it has now enjoyed for more than a third of a century. For 
some years it maintained a branch house in London, and has had 
an extensive clientage in Great Britain as well as in the United 
States. 

Soon after estabhshing his office in New York, Mr. Horton 
made his home upon Staten Island, at New Brighton. He was 
among the first to promote movements toward making that 
region a desirable place of residence for New York business men, 
and in many ways identified himself with its improvement and 
gi'owth. He was especially active and efficient in the creation 
of a water system for the Staten Island towns, and in improve- 
ment of transit facilities. In recent years Mr. Horton has made 
his home on West Fifty-seventh Street, New York, but he has 
not lost his former interest in Staten Island. 

Mr. Horton is the head of the firm of H. L. Horton & Co., and 
a member of the New York Stock Exchange, the New York 
Produce Exchange, and the Chicago Board of Trade. He is a 
director and treasurer of the Staten Island Water Supply Com- 
pany. He is also a member of the Union League, Lawyers', New 
York Athletic, and Stock Exchauge Lunch clubs, of New York 
city, of the Brotherhood and Monmouth Beach Grolf clubs, of 
the Country Club of Monmouth Beach, New Jersey, and of the 
Suburban Riding and Driving Club. 



COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON 



THE village of Harwinton, in picturesque Litchfield County, 
Connecticut, was the native place of Collis Potter Hun- 
tington, where he was born on October 22, 1821. He was the 
fifth of nine children, and at the age of fourteen years left school 
and began the business of life. For a year he was engaged at 
wages of seven dollars a month. In 1837 he came to New York 
and entered business for himself on a small scale. Then he 
went South, and gained much knowledge of the region in which 
some of Ms greatest enterprises were afterward to be conducted. 
At the age of twenty-two he joined his brother Solon in opening 
a general merchandise store at Oneonta, New York, and for a 
few years applied himself thereto. But he longed for more 
extended opportimities, and found them when the gold fever 
of 1849 arose. 

Mr. Huntington started for California on March 15, 1849, on the 
ship Crescent City^ with twelve hundi*ed dollars, which he drew 
out of Ms firm. He reached Sacramento some months later 
with about five thousand dollars, having increased his capital 
by tradmg in merchandise during his detention on the Isthmus. 
He at once opened a hardware store there, which is still in 
existence. Business was good, profits were large, and by 
1856 he had made a fortune. Then he turned his attention 
to railroads, especially to a line connecting the Pacific coast 
with the East. In 1860 the Central Pacific Railroad Company 
was organized, largely through his efforts, and he came back 
to WasMngtou to secure government aid. He was successful, 
and the sequel was the building of the first railroad across the 
continent. He was one of the four who gave that epoch-making 

174 



;:^.ii^ 





COLLIS POTTER HUNTINGTON 175 

work to the nation, the others being Messrs. Hopkins, Stanford, 
and Crocker. 

The Central Pacific road was completed in May, 1869. Later 
Mr. Huntington and his three associates planned and built the 
Southern Pacific road. When Colonel Scott sought to extend 
the Texas Pacific to the west coast, Mr Huntington hurried 
the Southern Pacific across the deserts of Arizona and New 
Mexico, and met the Texas line east of El Paso. Thence he 
can-ied his line on to San Antonio. In the meantime he had 
acquired various lines east of San Antonio, including the Gal- 
veston, Hamsbiu"g and San Antonio, the Texas and New Orleans, 
the Louisiana Western, and the Morgan's Louisiana and Texas 
raih-oads. In 1884 he organized the Southern Pacific Company, 
and under it unified no less than twenty-six distinct corporations, 
with some seven thousand miles of raih'oads and some five 
thousand miles of steamship lines in the United States and five 
hundi'ed and seventy-tlu'ee miles of railroads in Mexico. 

Even these stupendous enterprises did not exhaust the energy 
nor satisfy the ambition of Mr. Hunting-ton. He and his asso- 
ciates acquired the Guatemala Central Railroad, probably the 
best raih'oad property in Central America, and opened coal- 
mines in British Colmnbia. Not content with his railroad system 
from the Pacific to the Gulf, he reached out to the Atlantic as 
well, gaining a controlling interest in various Eastern raih'oads, 
and estabhshing at Newport News, Virginia, where the system 
terminated, one of the greatest shipyards in the world, and a 
port for commerce which already has secured a large share of 
the foreign trade of the United States. 

In the later years of his life Mr. Himtington resided chiefly in 
New York city. Despite his long career and great achievements 
he continued to the end to exhibit the energy and ambition of 
youth and the ability thereof for hard work. His death 
occurred unexpectedly, on August 13, 1900, at his camp in the 
Adirondacks. 



HENRY EDWARDS HUNTINGTON 



HENRY EDWARDS HUNTINGTON has long been a well- 
known figure in railroad circles, and stands to-day in the 
front rank of electric-railway men. The family is of English 
origin. In 1632 Simon Huntington came over from Norwich, 
hut died on the voyage. His wife and three sons settled at Rox- 
Inny, near Boston. The second son was one of those who 
bought from the Indians the site of the present city of Norwich, 
Connecticut, and made the first white settlement there. Among 
the descendants of Simon Huntington were Jabez Huntington 
and his son of the same name, generals in the Revolutionary 
army ; Ebenezer Huntington, adjutant-general and Connecticut 
Representative for two terms in Congress ; Samuel Huntington, 
one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, President 
of the Continental Congress, and Chief Justice and Governor of 
Connecticut ; and the late railroad-builder and financier, CoUis 
P. Huntington, the uncle of the subject of this sketch, whose 
constructive achievements, which began with the building of the 
pioneer Pacific Railroad, and continued until the end of his phe- 
nomenally active business life, made him one of the most talked- 
of men of his time. 

Henry Edwards Huntiugton, son of Solon Huntington and 
Harriet (Saunders) Huntington, was born at Oneonta, Otsego 
County, New York, on February 27, 1850, and began his busi- 
ness career in a hardware-store at Oneonta. Later he came to 
New York, and tlu'ough his uncle secured a similar position with 
a large hardware fii-m, with which he remained several years. 
In him his uncle perceived the unmistakable traits of a shrewd 
and energetic business man, and he kept his eye upon the lad 
without spoiling him by injudicious assistance in the formative 

176 




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HENRY EDWARDS HUNTINGTON 177 

period of his business life. He meant to have the boy show his 
mettle, and the boy did. Thrift, economy, and a keen readiness to 
grasp business opportunities, put him on a safe financial basis 
before he was twenty-one. Then his uncle sent him to St. 
Albans, West Virginia, to look after certain lumber interests 
which had been allowed through a former shiftless management 
to run to decay, and he acquitted himself with such credit and 
success that when, in 1880, the building of the Chesapeake, 
Ohio & Southwestern Railroad from Louisville to Memphis 
was under way he was appointed its superintendent of construc- 
tion. He was next transferred to the service of the Kentucky 
Central Railroad, of which he became in succession superinten- 
dent, receiver, general manager, and vice-president, and brought 
that line into the position of a prosperous and valuable property. 
At the same time he supervised the building of the railroad 
between Ashland, Kentucky, and Covington, Ohio, known as 
the Maysville & Big Sandy, and his reputation as a successful 
railroad-ljuilder became established. 

In 1890 he took charge of the Newport News & Mississippi 
Valley Company, an organization controlling a system of rail- 
road lines rimning from Kentucky to New Orleans, and here he 
displayed so marked an executive ability that Colli s P. Hunting- 
ton sent him to San Francisco to represent him in Central and 
Southern Pacific matters. In April, 1892, he was appointed 
assistant to the president of the Southern Pacific Company ; in 
the spring of 1900 he became second vice-pi-esident, and in June 
of the same year was elected first vice-president, which office he 
still holds. 

Mr. Huntington is president of the Southern Pacific Railroad 
Companies of New Mexico and Arizona, and of the Carson & Colo- 
rado Railroad in Nevada ; is vice-president of the Southern Pacific 
Railroad Company of California, and of the South Pacific Coast 
Railway Company ; is president of the Market Street Railway 
Company of San Francisco, of the Los Angeles (street) Rail- 
way Company, and of the Pacific Electric Railway Company 
of California. He is, besides, a director of many organizations 
as well as principal owner of water-works in the East. By 
the will of the late Collis P. Huntington he was made one of the 
residuary legatees of his uncle's vast estate. 



178 HENRY EDWARDS HUNTINGTON 

The trend of Mr. Huntington's life-work has led him finally 
into what many far-seeing railroad men regard as the greatest 
field of the future in the ti-ansportation of the country, namely, 
electric railways. Mr. Huntington acquired the Los Angeles 
Street Railway, and the almost immediate effect of the change 
in administration was the infusion of a new and vigorous life 
into the management of the company, which hegan to im- 
prove its equipment and service, extend its lines, and grow into 
a system of vast possibilities. A syndicate headed by him has 
recently established the Pacific Electric Railway Company, with 
a capital of $15,000,000 and franchises of great value, the pur- 
poses of whose organization is to run electric railroads through 
southern California wherever business will justify new lines ; 
and in competition with the great steam lines which have here- 
tofore served that section of California the story of David and 
Clohath may, with some modifications, be exemplified. 

Mr. Huntington, like his famous uncle, whom he resembles in 
many of his characteristics, has never sought or held political 
ofiice, and although a member of all the prominent social organ- 
izations of California and of the Metropolitan Club of New York, 
gives scant attention to these lighter duties of life, for the lack 
of time, if not of taste, for them. He is a practical man of 
affairs, and, with a knowledge of prospective as well as intrinsic 
values that is instinctive, is a keen trader, and one who is willing 
to wait years, if necessary, for the profits which shall justify his 
judgment. He is somewhat abrupt but jovial in manner ; is a 
good selecter and reader of books, and has a passion for fine 
bindings, with which he ornaments his library shelves ; is quick 
in his decisions, the soul of brevity, and a worker of the rapid 
type. On the broad horizon of the railroad future Henry Ed- 
wards Huntington looms up as one of the portentous forces of 
the new century. 



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LLOYD LOWNDES JACKSON 



1L0YD LOWNDEvS JACKSON", the president, of the Lloyd 
i L. Jackson Company of Baltimore, and one of the leaders 
of the mercantile and financial life of that city, is a Virginian 
by birth and ancestry. His parents, Blackwell and Emily 
(Byrd) Jackson, were descended from some of the earliest set- 
tlers of the "Old Dominion," the former coining of Englisli, and 
the latter of German stock. He was born on February 3, 18-16, 
at Jane Lew, in Lewis Covmty, Virginia,— a county which was 
afterward separated from Virginia as a part of the new State 
of West Virginia. After passing through j^rimary and gram- 
mar schools, he was sent to the JMonongahela Academy at Mor-. 
gantown, Virginia— now West Virginia. There he was just 
fairly started on his course when the Civil War broke out. His 
enthusiasm for his native State was stronger than the restrain- 
ing influences of school and study, and though he was only fif- 
teen years old, he laid down his books and enlisted in the Con- 
federate army. His mother, however, intervened and caused 
his withdrawal from the army and his return to the academy, 
where he then completed his course. 

His business career began in 1866, when he went to Baltimore 
and entered the employ of John E. Hurst & Co., a leading dr}^- 
goods house. After six years' service he became a member of 
the firm, and thus remained until the latter part of 1901, at 
which date he organized the Lloyd L. Jackson Company, and 
became its president. This company was incorporated under 
the laws of New York, with a capital' of $1,000,000. 

In addition to his long identification with the dry-goods trade, 
Mr. Jackson has been and is associated with various other busi- 

179 



180 LLOYD LOWNDES JACKSON 

ness enterprises. He was formerly a director of the Western 
Maryland Railroad Company, and is now a director of the Com- 
mercial and Farmers' national banks, and of several other cor- 
porations, as well as of the Maryland Penitentiary, and he is 
vice-president of the Maryland Trust Company. He is presi- 
dent of the Merchants' and Manufacturers' Association, and a 
member of the Merchants' and Maryland clubs of Baltimore. 

Mr. Jackson was appointed qiiartermaster-general on the 
staff of Governor Brown of Maryland in 1892, and served in 
that capacity until 1896. He was also chairman of the Mary- 
land Commission at the Pan-American Exposition at Buffalo 
in 1901, and a member of the Maryland Commission at the In- 
terstate and West India Exposition at Charleston, South Caro- 
lina, in the same year. In politics he has always been an ear- 
nest and active Democrat. He was one of the organizers of the 
Business Men's Democratic Association of Baltimore, one of 
the executive committee of the National Association of Demo- 
cratic Clubs, and the founder of the Commercial Travelers' 
Democratic (Uub in 1896, which was afterward reorganized as 
the Commercial Travelers' and Business Men's Democratic 
Club. In the t-ampaign of 1900, however, he was an earnest sup- 
porter of President McKinley, and worked for his reelection. 

Mr. Jackson was married on November 30, 1873, to Miss Anne 
Elizabeth Lester, a daughter of the late James M. Lester of Bal- 
timore, who has borne him five children, Lloyd L., Jr., Anne L., 
Edith B., Elsie, and Emma Jackson. The family is identified 
with the Enunauuel Protestant Episcopal Church of Baltunore. 




JOSEPH JEFFERSON 



JOSEPH JEFFERSON, the foremost American actor of the 
present time, comes of a family of actors. For at least three 
generations before his own the family was conspicuous upon 
the English-speaking stage. His great-grandfather played the 
King to Garrick's Hamlet, and was very highly esteemed. His 
grandfather, for whom he was named, was one of the most ac- 
complished comedians in the early years of the American stage, 
and his father and mother were both stage favorites in their day, 
his father being not only an actor, l)ut a manager, and adapter of 
plays, and an accomplished painter of stage scenery — whence, 
perhaps, Joseph Jefferson derives his more than ordinary talent 
as a painter. 

Mr. Jefferson was born in Philadelphia on February 20, 1829, 
and made his first appearance in pubhc on the stage at the age 
of four years. He served at that time as a member of the com- 
pany of the famous " Jim Crow " Rice, a burnt-cork comedian, 
who brought the child upon the stage in a bag and emptied him 
out to perform a dance. As early as the fall of 1837 the boy 
played a juvenile part at the old Franklin Theatre in New 
York. 

A little later he was plajdng in stock companies, in support of 
such actors as James W. Wallack, W. C. Macready, Junius 
Brutus Booth, and Mr. and Mrs. J. W. Wallack, Jr. Then he 
went across the continent, in the wake of the American army in 
Texas, acting in the old Spanish theatre in Matamoras in 1846. 
The next ten years were spent in Philadelphia, New York, Balti- 
more, and other Atlantic coast cities as stock actor, star, and 
manager, with varied experience. Among the actors with whom 
he was associated in those years were James Murdock, Henry 



181 



182 JOSEPH JEFFERSON 

Placide, Edwin Forrest, Edwin Adams, Agnes Robertson, and 
his half-brother, the gifted Charles Burke. 

In 185G Mr. Jefferson went to England, but not to act. He 
there saw Couipton, Buckstone, Phelps, and other famous come- 
(hans. On his return home he became associated with Laura 
Keene in her New York Theatre in 1857, and thus early began the 
really brilliant part of his career. He began at that theatre with 
Dr. Pangloss, which has ever since been one of his best parts. 
Great success as Asa Trenchard in " Our American Cousin " fol- 
lowed. Next he was associated with Dion Boucicault at the 
Winter Garden, playing Caleb Plummer and other well-known 
parts. He was first attracted to " Rip Van Winkle " in 1859, 
but did not at once play it. Instead he kept on with a round of 
parts, and made a picturesque torn* through California and Aus- 
tralia, spenduag four years in the latter coimtry. Thence he 
went to South America and so on to England, where, at the 
Adelphi Theatre in London in September, 1865, he first pro- 
duced " Rip Van Winkle," with the title role of which he has 
ever since been inseparably associated. 

Mr. Jefferson returned to America in 1866, and enjoyed ten 
years of fame and fortune. In 1876-77 he made a most success- 
ful visit to England, delighting critics and populace with his 
playing. Since 1877 he has remained in America, playing Rip, 
Bob Acres, Dr. Pangloss, Mr. Golightly, Caleb Plummer, and 
other parts with ever-increasing popularity. He has also fre- 
quently lectured, and has written for publication, besides win- 
ning high praise as a landscape-painter. 

Mr. Jefferson was first married, to Margaret Clement Lockyer, 
on May 19, 1850, and in the spring of 1861 was left a widower. 
He was again man-ied, on December 20, 1867, to Miss Sarah 
Warren. 



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FREDERIC BEACH JENNINGS 

^ .REDERIC BEACH JENNINGS is descended from Joshua 
Jemiings, who was born in England in 1620, came to this 
country at the age of twenty-five, settled at Hartford, and later 
removed to Fairfield, Connecticut. In each of the five succeed- 
ing generations the Une of descent passed through an Isaac Jen- 
nings, each horn at Fairfield. The third of them was a farmer 
and manufacturer, and a lieutenant in the American army in the 
Revolution. He mamed Abigail Gould, daughter of Colonel 
Abraham Gould, and a descendant of Major Nathan Gould, one 
of the first settlers of Connecticut. The fourth Isaac Jennings 
was a well-known physician and wi'iter upon medical and 
hygienic subjects, who spent most of his active life at Derbj^, 
Connecticut, and Oberlin, Ohio. His wife was Anne Beach, 
daughter of Eliakim Beach of Trumbidl, Connecticut. The 
fifth Isaac Jenning's was a member of the celebrated class of 
1837 in Yale College, and after graduation ]>ecame a well-known 
Congregational minister, who had charge successively of churches 
at Akron, Ohio, Stamford, Connecticut, and Bennington, Vermont. 
He traveled in Europe, and was the author of several books. He 
married Sophia Day, daughter of Matthias Day of Mansfield, Ohio. 

The son of this last-named couple, Frederic Beach Jennings, 
was born at Bennington Center, Yermont, on August 6, 1853, 
and received his early education in private schools at that place. 
Thence he went to Williams College, where he was graduated 
with the degree of A. B. in 1872. Three years later Williams 
gave him his master's degree, and in recent years he has been a 
trustee of his alma mater. From Williams he went to the Har- 
vard Law School, from which he was gradiiated in 1874, with 
the degree of LL.B. He then entered the office of Evarts, 

183 



184 FREDERIC BEACH JENNINGS 

Southmayd & Choate in New York, at the same time taking the 
thu-d year's course at the Law School of New York University, 
from which he received the Ijaccalanreate degree in 1875, at the 
same time winning the first prize for an essay. 

Mr. Jennings was admitted to the bar promptly after his gi'adu- 
ation from New York University. He remained connected with 
Mr. Evarts's office for several years, until 1879, when he organ- 
ized the law fii-m of Jennings & Russell, which was subsequently 
combined with the old firm of Bangs & Stetson into his present 
firm of Stetson, Jennings & Russell. His practice has been 
devoted largely to the interests of railroads and other corpora- 
tions, and he is now counsel for the Erie Railroad Company, the 
International Paper Company, the Associated Press, the Ameri- 
can Trading Company, the Trust Company of America, and 
other large companies. 

Besides his highly successful legal practice, Mr. Jennings has 
become interested in other business mattei's. Thus he is a trus- 
tee of the Continental Trust Company of New York, and a 
director of the Chicago & Erie Railroad, of the International 
Paper Company, of the American Trading Company, of the First 
National Bank of Bennington, Vermont, and of various other 
companies. He is also a trustee of Barnard College. 

Mr. Jennings is a member of the Bar Association, and of its 
executive committee ; and also of the University, Century, 
Union League, Metropolitan, Racquet and Tennis, City, New 
York Athletic, and Delta Kappa Epsilon clubs of New York, of 
the Down-Town Association, of the New England Society, of 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, of the Williams College 
Alumni Association, of the St. Andrew's and Garden City Golf 
clubs, of the Country Club of Westchester County, and of 
various other social organizations. 

He was married at North Bennington, Vermont, on July 27, 
1880, to Miss Laura Hall Park, daughter of Trenor W. Park 
and granddaughter of Hiland HaU, formerly Governor of the 
State of Vermont. Mr. and Mrs. Jennings make their home on 
Park Avenue, New York, and in summer at Fairview, North 
Bennington, Vermont. They have four childi'en : Percy Hall, 
who is now a student at Yale, Elizabeth, Frederic Beach, Jr., 
and Edward Phelps Jennings. 




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JOHN P. JONES 



JOHN PERCIVAL JONES, United States Senator, is a na- 
tive of the border-land between England and Wales, hav- 
ing been born in Herefordshire in 1829. When about a year old 
he was brought to the United States, his family settlmg in north- 
ern Ohio. His early education was acqim*ed partly in private 
schools and partly in the public schools of Cleveland, including 
the high school. 

On the discovery of gold on the Pacific coast he went to Cali- 
fornia, took up his residence in Tuolumne Countv, and became in 
time one of its leading citizens. He was elected to the Senate of 
the State, serving for four years. In 1867 he was the nominee 
of the Republican party for Lieuteuaut-Govemor, but owing to 
a belief among the people that that party was favorable to 
Chinese immigration, the influences of which w^ere then begin- 
ning to be felt, the Republican ticket was defeated. 

Soon afterward, moving to Nevada, he became prominently 
identified with the mining industry of that State, and in 1873 
was elected to represent the State in the United States Senate. 
This position he has ever since continued to occupy, having been 
reelected upon the expiration of each term to the present time. 
In March, 1903, he will have been for tliirty consecutive years a 
Senator. 

Mr. Jones soon won a conspicuous place in the Senate, proving 
himself a thinker of great force and originality, as well as a ready 
and well-equipped debater. He took special interest in economic 
and financial questions, and questions affecting the interests of 
the people of the Pacific coast. 

He was chaii*man of the Monetary Commission appointed by 
Congress in 1876 to inquire into the changes in the relative 

185 



186 JOHN p. JONES 

values of the precious metals. Appreciating the unusual impor- 
tance of this investigation, and casting aside all preconceived 
opinions of tlie subject (the better to pursue his inquiries unbi- 
ased), he entered upon the work of the commission determined 
to make an exhaustive study of the subject of money. His report 
of this commission, submitted to Congress in 1877, and the 
speeches which he siibsequently delivered in the Senate on 
mont^tary subjects, have become classics which have been con- 
sulted by orators, editors, and public men without number in the 
multifarious financial discussions that have arisen during nearly 
a quarter of a century past. 

Senator Jones was one of the American delegates to the 
International Monetary Conference which met at Brussels in 
1892. 

Among the public questions of interest to the people of the 
Pacific coast States, the question of the immigration of Chinese 
laborers has long been one of the most prominent. Mr. Jones 
has strenuously opposed the admission of such laborers, not 
only because gi'eat and far-reaching labor difficulties would 
ensue, but also because, in his judgment, radical differences of 
race constitute an insuperable and ever-continuing barrier to 
the upbuilding of a homogeneous people. 

Senator Jones is a strong advocate of the policy of pro- 
tection to American labor. His views on the subject are pre- 
sented in carefully prepared addresses delivered in the Senate. 
Of one of these addresses, which, in printed form, bears the 
title " Shall the Republic Do Its Own Work 1 " the American 
Protective Tariff League has, at his own expense, printed and 
gratuitously distributed over a million copies. Writing of the 
same address as a philosophic presentation, on a high plane, of 
the principles of protection to om- own industries, an influential 
American journal characterizes it as "fitted to take rank side 
by side with Alexander Hamilton's report on manufactures." 



OTTO HERMAN KAHN 

THE callings adopted by various nations, or at least the voca- 
tions in which they especially excel, form an interesting- 
study, in which the reasons for what we see are not always evi- 
dent. It would probably be judicious to estimate that Germany, 
for example, has fui-nished a larger portion of bankers and 
financiers to the business world than has any other country. 
Just why this is so may not at once be apparent, but we may 
discern some fitness for it in the well-known predilection of the 
German mind for mathematics and kindred exact sciences, and 
for painstaking analysis and research. These are the qualities 
of mind which naturally bespeak and successfully equip the 
financier. 

Not only have Frankfort and other German cities been for 
generations centers of international finance, but also many Ger- 
man financiers have settled in the United States, and in New 
York city, here to pursue their chosen calhng. German names 
abound in the financial chstrict of New York, and German firms 
occupy leading places in the busy world of Wall Street. Con- 
spicuous among such firms is that of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., which 
for years has been prominent in Wall Street, and which in 1901 
was so closely identified with the sensational Union Pacific and 
Northern Pacific Railroad operations, as a member of the so- 
called Harriman Syndicate. 

A member of that firm is the subject of the present sketch. 
Otto Herman Kahn was born at Mannheim, Germany, on Feb- 
ruaiy 21, 1867, the son of Bernhard Kahn and Emma Kahn, the 
latter born Eberstadt. He received the careful and thorough 
education common to German youths, and then learned his 
father's business, that of a banker. 

187 



188 OTTO HERMAN KAHN 

Mr. Kahn received a complete training, not only in ordinary- 
banking, but also in the international finance to which his pres- 
ent firm largely devotes its attention, by practical work in sev- 
eral lands. He was connected with prominent banking houses 
in Berhu and in London before coming to the United States. 
In New York he is a member of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. 
of No. 27 Pine Street, and has taken an active part in its opera- 
tions, among which have been some of the gi-eatest in the finan- 
cial history of New York. 

Reference has already been made to the firm's alhance with the 
Harriman Syndicate and its participation in the great Union Pacific 
and Northern Pacific Railroad deals. Mr. Kahn is personally a 
voting trustee of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, and 
a director of the Union Pacific, Southern Pacific, Baltimore & 
Ohio Southwestern, Kansas City Southern, and Oregon Short 
Line Railroad companies, the Western National Bank of New 
York, and the Morristown Tnist Company of Morristown, 
New Jersey. 

Mr. Kahn makes his home partly in New York city and partly 
at the delightful suburb of Morristown, New Jersey. He is a 
member of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, 
of the City, Lawyers', and Lotus clubs of New York, and of the 
St. Andrew's Golf Club and Morristown Field Club. 

Ml". Kahn was married, on January 8, 1896, to Miss Addie 
Wolff, daughter of the late Abraham Wolff of New York city. 





<^^-i ^ 



JOHN KEAN 



IIBERTY HALL," atUrsino,Uuion County, New Jersey, is one 
i of the most noteworthy houses in a region rich in historic 
interest. It was built by Governor Livingston in 1772, and. 
was occupied by him as his home for many years. Natm^ally, 
it was much frequented by the prominent men of the Revolu- 
tionary period. Washington often held counsels wnth his officers 
within its walls. Hamilton there pursued some of his legal 
studies. John Jay was a frequent visitor, it being there that he 
wooed and wedded the daughter of Governor Livingston. To 
this day the ancient house is carefully preserved, and it serves as 
the home, as it was the birthplace, of one of the foremost public 
men of New Jersey of this generation. 

John Kean was born in " Liberty Hall" on December 4, 1852. 
He was educated successively at a boarding-school at Stock- 
bridge, Massachusetts; at an academy of high grade at Sing 
Sing, New York, where he completed a com'se of studies much 
in advance of college-entrance requirements ; at Yale University, 
which he entered in 1872 ; and at the Law School of Colimibia 
University, from which he was graduated in 1876. He then 
studied law in the office of Chetwood & Magie, and in 1877 was 
admitted to practice at the bar of the State of New Jersey. 

Legal practice did not, however, prove so satisfactory to Mr. 
Kean's tastes as business and especially financial pursuits. He 
accordingly turned away fi'oni his law books and office to bank- 
ing and manufacturing, in which he has been conspicuously 
successful. He is now president of the National State Bank of 
Elizabeth, New Jersey, and its largest stockholder ; a director of 
the Elizabethport Banking Company ; president and controlling 
proprietor of the Elizabethtown Water Company and of the 

189 



190 JOHN KEAN 

Elizabetlitown Gas Company ; the principal owner of the Ehza- 
beth Street Railway Company ; vice-president of the Manhattan 
Trust Company of New York ; and is interested actively in 
various other industrial and financial enterprises. He is one of 
the largest employers of labor in the city of Elizabeth, and has 
contributed more than most of his contemporaries to the growth 
and prosperity of that city. 

Ml'. Kean began at an early age to be recognized as one of the 
leaders of his party in the city and State, and for a number of 
years was treasurer of the RepubUcan State Committee of 
New Jersey. In 1882 he was the Republican candidate for 
Representative in CongTess. He was elected by the handsome 
majority of 2295, and served his term to the great satisfaction 
of his constituents. He was a candidate for reelection in 1884, 
but suffered defeat in that Democratic year at the hands of 
Robert S. Green, who was afterward elected Governor of the 
State. In 1886 Mr. Kean was again a candidate, and was elected. 
He was the Republican candidate for Governor in 1892, but that 
also was a Democratic year, and he was defeated by George T. 
Werts, by a small majority. 

A few years later the State became strongly Republican. It 
was recognized that much credit for this was due to Mr. Kean, 
and that this fact might fittingly be marked by sending him to 
the Senate of the United States. In Januaiy, 1899, Mi'. Kean 
was unanimously nominated for the senatorship by the Republi- 
can members of both houses of the Legislatm-e, and was duly 
elected, receiving the solid vote of the RepubUcan majority. 
His term as Senator began in March, 1899, and will extend to 
March, 1905. 

Mr. Kean is well known in New York, both in business and in 
society. Besides his home in " Liberty Hall," Ursino, he has a 
house at No. 3 East Fifty-sixth Street, New York where he 
spends much of his time iu -winters. 



JAMES EGBERT KEENE 

WALL STREET takes unto itself with eqi;al welcome men 
from all lands and all walks of life. Some are foreign, 
some native-born ; some have inherited fortune, some have fought 
their way up fi-om poverty. And no man can tell until the event 
is seen who shall prosper, this one or that. Among the great 
and successful speculators of the Street few, if any, have been 
better known than the subject of this sketch, nor have any had 
more marked fluctuations of fortune, nor have there been many 
whose antecedents pointed less toward such a career than did 
his. The son of a cautious and conservative English merchant, 
he became one of the most daring of American speculators. 
Once a poor man earning meager daily wages by menial work, 
he became one of the money kings of the richest city in the 
Westei-n world. It is a partly t>q)ical and partly unique career. 
James Robert Keene was born in London, England, in 1838, 
the son of a wealthy merchant, and was educated at a private 
school in Lincolnshire and in a preparatory school of Trinity 
College, Dublin. Before he could enter the college, however, 
his father met with serious business reverses, and came to 
America with his family. The first enthusiasm over the dis- 
covery of gold in California had not yet begun to wane, and to 
that State the family proceeded, settling at Shasta in 1852. 
There the boy of fourteen was compelled to reckon his schooling 
finished with a good English education and some Latin and 
French, and to go to work for his own living. His first occupa- 
tion was to take care of the horses at Fort Reading, and it may 
well be supposed that he there acquired that love of those ani- 
mals which has been so marked a characteristic of his later life. 
But in three months he had earned and saved enough to buy a 

191 



192 JAMES ROBERT KEENE 

miner's outfit, and with it on liis back he set forth to seek 
" pay dirt." 

His success was at first indifferent. He did some mining, 
milhng, freighting, and stock-raising, and then was editor of a 
newspaper for two years. In none of these pursuits did he find 
the way to fortune. Then he left California and went to Nevada, 
soon after the discovery of the famous Comstock lode. There 
he " struck it rich." He bought and sold mining property until 
he had money enough to go to San Francisco and begin the 
career of a stock speculator. In a few months he had more than 
a hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars clear. Then he got 
manied, liis wife l:)eing Sara Daingerfield, daughter of Colonel 
Daingerfield < >f Virginia, and sister of Judge Daingerfield of Cali- 
fornia. He was now, he thought, on the sure road to fortune. 
But there was a sharp turn in the road. A crash in mining 
stocks came, and he was in a day made all but penniless. 

With indomitable spirit he began again, dealing in stocks in 
a small way. After a time he got in with Senator C. N. Felton, 
and transacted much business for him as his broker. When Mi\ 
Felton became Assistant United States Treasm-er he sold his seat 
in the Stock Exchange to Mr. Keene, although the latter did not 
have enoiigh money to pay for it in cash. But once in the Ex- 
change, Mr. Keene rose rapidly to wealth and prominence. He 
soon became president of the Exchange. By shrewd purchases 
of stock in the Bonanza mines on the Comstock lode he reahzed 
a fortune of at least six million dollars. \VTien the Bank of 
California failed, he was one of the four contribiitors of one 
million dollars cash to the guaranty fund of eight milhon dol- 
lars required to secure depositors against loss and to enable the 
bank to continue business. Through his influence the Stock 
Exchange was led to contribute five hundred thousand dollars, 
and individual members of it nearly as much more. Thus the 
bank was saved, and the whole Pacific coast saved from a 
disastrous blow. 

In the spring of 1877 Mr. Keene set out for Eiu'ope for rest 
and restoration of his health. Reaching New York, he found 
the stock market depressed and demoralized. Postponing his 
trip abroad, he entered Wall Street and began buying stocks 
right and left. The market improved ; prices went up ; and 



JAMES ROBERT KEENE 193 

in the autumn of 1879 he was able to sell out his holdings and 
sail for Eiu-ope nine milhon dollars richer than when he came 
to New York. 

Since his retm-n from that Em-opean trip Mr. Keene has made 
his home in or near New York. He has taken part in many im- 
portant operations in Wall Street, and has had varied fortunes 
there. At times he has seemed on the verge of entire disaster ; 
but his steady nerve, his thorough knowledge of the market, 
and his indomitable mil have carried him through and made 
him m the long ruu a gainer of great profits. 

As one of the founders and steward of the Jockey Club, Mr. 
Keene has been conspicuously identified with horse-racing, per- 
haps as conspicuously and intimately as any man of his time. 
His horse "Foxhall" will be especially remembered as the winner 
of two or thi'ee great races in England and France. He is also a 
member of the Rockaway Hunt Club, to the interests of which 
he has paid much attention. In the city he belongs to the 
Racquet Club. His home is at Cedarhm'st, on Long Island. 
His childi'en are Foxhall Parker Keene, who married Miss 
Lawrence of Bayside, Long Island, and Jessie Harwar Keene, 
now the wife of Talbot I. Taylor of Baltimore. 




SENECA D. KIMBARK 

A PROMINENT figure among the " self-made men " of Clii- 
cago who have attained social leadership and mercantile 
success in that Western metropolis, is Seneca D. Kimbark. He 
is a native of the western part of New York State, where he was 
born in 1832, and his education was obtained in the public schools 
and in Geneseo and Canandaigua academies. 

His father was a farmer of moderate means, and the boy was 
accustomed in early years to the hard work incidental to farm 
life. Beginning with his twelfth year, he was self-supporting. 
When out of school he worked upon the farm. But he devoted 
all possible attention to getting an education, with such success 
that in a few years he was able to exchange fai'm-work for teach- 
ing. Thus working, studying, and teaching, he spent his life 
until he was twenty-one years of age. 

At that time he decided to leave the sphere of action which 
had gi'own monotonous and thstasteful to him, and to seek a 
new and wider field in the West. At that time Chicago — in 
1853 — was still deemed in the "far West." He went thither, 
and became a bookkeeper for E. Gr. Hall & Co., who had just 
started in the iron and steel business in that city. The next 
year the epidemic of cholera swept over the country. Chicago 
suffered much from it, and Mr. Kimbark had a chance to show 
of what stuff he was made. The members of the company left 
the city for safety. But, with fine courage and devotion to duty, 
he remained, assumed full charge of the estabhshment, and not 
only himself escaped the scom'ge, but conducted the affairs of 
the firm with noteworthy success and profit. 

This made him a marked man in the establishment, and a 
natural sequence was that in 1858 he was admitted to partner- 

194 



SENECA D. KIMBABK 195 

ship, the fii'in then becoming that of Hall, Kiuibark & Co. 
Sound in health, alert in mind, and strong and vigorous in natiu'e, 
he threw himself into the business of the firm with an energy 
that told for great advancement of its interests, and the firm of 
Hall, Kimbark & Co. became a leader in the iron and steel trade 
of Chicago and of the entire West. 

The great fire of 1871 entu'ely destroyed the mammoth ware- 
houses of the firm, but while the ruins were yet smoldering 
Mr. Kimbark secui'ed from the INIayor a permit to erect a tem- 
porary building on the lake front. Within a week thereafter a 
rough one-story shed, 100 by 400 feet, had been erected and 
stocked with iron and hardware, and the business of the firm 
was resmned. In retrieving the losses from this great disaster 
Mr. Kimbark put forth gi-eater energy than ever, and his labor, 
tact, integrity, and sagacity brought him safely through the 
perplexities and difficidties of the time and restored the pros- 
perity of the firm. At this time the fimi had become Kimbark 
Brothers & Co., and consisted of Mr. Kimbark, his two brothers^ 
George M. and Daniel A., and Mr. Hall. In 1876, however, Mr. 
Kimbark became, and has since remained, sole proprietor of the 
business. 

As a result of Mr. Kimbark's enterprise, Chicago became the 
Western distributing center for iron and heavy hardware, and 
large shipments of such goods were and are made by his house 
to Australia, Mexico, and South America. 

Some years ago Mr. Kimliark estabhshed at Elkhart, Indiana, 
an extensive plant for the manufacture of wagon and carriage 
bodies and other wooden stock for the vehicle trade, and this 
enterprise has been eminently successful. 




JOHN HENRY KIRBY 



JOHN HENRY KIRBY, one of tbe prominent and represen- 
tative business men of tbe Soutb, is of Englisb and Itaban 
ancestry. On bis fatber's side be is descended from Edmund 
Kirby, wbo, witb bis two brotbers, all yontbs, came from Eng- 
land to Virginia about 1768. Tbe tbree brotbers were all 
soldiers in tbe Revolutionary army. Edmimd Kirby married a 
daugbter of William Sbepberd, and settled in Stokes County, 
Nortb Carolina, wbere a sou, James Kii'by, was born. Tbe 
latter, growing iip, married Elizabetb Lougino, daugbter of Jobn 
Tbomas Longino, an Italian nobleman wbo bad been banisbed 
from Italy for political reasons and bad married Mary Ransom 
of Nortb Carolina. To James and Elizabetb Kh'by was born a 
son, Jobn Tbomas Kirby, wbo was born in Kentucky, married 
Sarali Payne at Monticello, Mississippi, in 1841, and settled in 
Tyler County, Texas, in 1852, wbere be followed tbe occupation 
of a farmer. 

To tbis latter couple tbe subject of tbis sketcb was born, in 
Tyler County, Texas, on November 16, 1860. He was educated 
in tbe common scbools of Tyler County, and at tbe Soutb western 
University at CTeorgeto^^^l, Texas. Until be was twenty years of 
age be worked upon bis fatber's farm in tbe intervals of scbool- 
ing. He also taugbt a country school for a time, and was a 
clerk in tbe county Tax Office of Tyler County. Following the 
latter engagement be became for two years a clerk in tbe Texas 
State Senate. Wliile in tbe Tax Office and tbe Senate clerkship 
be read law under S. B. Cooper, and in 1885, at tbe age of twenty- 
five years, be was admitted to practice at tbe bar. He entered 
upon tbe practice of bis profession at Woodville, Tyler County, 

196 



JOHN HENRY KIEBY 197 

Texas, and there remained until 1890, when he removed to 
Houston, Texas. 

This brief record of professional activity by no means, how- 
ever, represents the doings of Mr. Kirby's busy Hfe. In 1886 he 
was professionally engaged l)y a wealthy citizen of Boston, 
Massachusetts, to look after some small interests in Texas which 
were then in litigation. He persuaded his patron and client to 
invest extensively in Texas timber-lands, he sharing in the en- 
terprise. The outcome of the venture was most profitable, and 
Mr. Kirby was encouraged to continue in the lumber business, 
and has done so down to the present time with marked success, 
being now president of the Kirby Lumber Company, a coi"pora- 
tion with $10,000,000 capital. 

His lumber enterprises naturally led Mr. Ku'by into other im- 
portant undertakings, especially the construction of railroads. 
In 1893, when the business of the whole country was suffering 
from acute depression, he began the construction of the Gulf, 
Beaumont & Kansas City Raih'oad, running into the heart of 
the pine-lumber country. Seven years later the completed road 
was sold to the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railroad, and 
now forms part of its gi-eat system, which affords to eastern 
Texas a highway to the North and Central West of great prac- 
tical value. 

Mr. Kirby is still a practising lawyer, at the head of the lead- 
ing Houston firm of Earby, Martin & Eagle. Besides being 
president of the Kirby Lumber Company above mentioned, he 
is president of the Planters' and Mechanics' National Bank of 
Houston, with $200,000 capital, and vice-president of the GuK, 
Beaumont & Kansas City Railroad, of the Gulf, Beaiunont & 
Northern Railroad, and of the Beaumont Wharf & Terminal 
Company. He is a director of the Houston Electric Street 
Railway Company, and also of the Houston Oil Company, a 
corporation with $30,000,000 capital. These various business 
activities have left Mr. Kirby no time even to think of engaging 
in pohtics, though he is one of the most popular citizens of the 
State. He is a member of the Houston Club of Houston, Texas, 
and of the Manhattan Clul) of New York city. He also belongs 
to the Magnoha Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons, to the 
Washington Chapter of Royal Ai'ch Masons, to the Ruthven 



198 JOHN HENKY KIKBY 

Commandery of Knights Templar, to the Scottish Rite Masons 
of the Tliirty-seeond Degree, to the Houston Lodge of Elks, and 
to the Knights of Pythias. 

He was married in early life — on Novemher 14, 1883, when 
he was only twenty-three years old — to Miss Lelia Stewart, at 
Woodville, Texas. They have one child, Miss Bessie May 
Kirby, who was l)orn in 1886. 

Speaking of the affairs of Mr. Kirby's big lumber company, 
one of the directors recently said : 

" The Kirby Lumber Company has already purchased five 
sawmills having an annual aggregate sawing capacity of 250,- 
000,000 feet. We have contracted for others and will jirobably 
require an additional 100,000,000 feet of capacity through mills 
which we now have under contract. In addition to this, the 
company purposes to build five or more large mills in the big 
forest, having an annual capacity of 150,000,000 feet. This will 
bring the output of the Kirby Liimber Company up to more than 
1,000,000 feet per day. 

" The chief weakness of the lumber business in the eastern 
Texas district up to the present time has been that there was 
no concern here, prior to the organization of the Kirby Lumber 
Company, big enough to take care of the business. We are now 
preparing to take anything that comes, and we expect to supply 
promptly not only the domestic trade, but to take desirable large 
business from abroad. Through economies of management we 
expect to reduce the cost of production, at the same time in- 
creasing om* facihties for distribution, so that we wall be pre- 
pared to compete for the business of the whole world, no matter 
where the market may lie. Three of our mills are in Beaumont 
and two in Orange. Two other mills in Orange will be forced 
to stop their saws and to go out of bi;siness because we now 
own the forest fi'om which they would have to draw their supply 
of timber." 






'-Pl--^ 




ALVIN WILLIAM KHECH 



A LVIN WILLIAM KRECH was born at Hannibal, Missouri, 
J\. on May 25, 1858, the son of William and Matilda Krech. 
His father was professor of literatm-e and languages, who had 
been graduated from German and French gymnasia, and was 
apparently destined for a distinguished career in his native land. 
But he took an active part in the revolutionary movement in 
Prussia in 1848, and after its collapse came to the United States, 
as did so many other of the best-educated and most progressive 
Germans. In the United States he devoted himself to educa- 
tional and sociological work, especially to pedagogy. He was 
also a thorough musician. 

The subject of this sketch received an excellent education, 
partly in the public schools and partly xmder the exceptionally 
capable supervision and instruction of his father. He was par- 
ticularly proficient in mathematics and the allied branches, and 
upon leaving school for a business career found his first engage- 
ment as an accountant in the Holly Flouring Mills at Minne- 
apohs, Minnesota. He was advanced fi-om place to place in the 
mills, until he became a partner in the firm, and finally sole owner. 

Mr. Krech became interested in railroads about 1886, and from 
that year to 1892 was actively engaged in railroad construction 
in the firm of Shepard, Siems & Co. He became connected with 
the affairs of the Union Pacific Raih'oad during the period of its 
insolvency, and served as secretary of the reorganization com- 
mittee. Since that time he has served upon the reorganization 
committees of numerous railroads and other industrial properties. 

At the present time ]VIi\ Krech is vice-president of the Mer- 
cantile Trust Company of New York, and of the Wheehng & 
Lake Erie Railroad Company, and also a dii-ector of several im- 

199 



200 ALVIN WILLIAM KRECH 

portant industrial corporations. His offices are in New York, 
and his home is in the same city, he having removed to it at the 
time of his participation in the reorganization of the Union 
Pacific Railroad. 

Mr. Krech has taken no active part in political affairs beyond 
that of ordinary citizenship, and has held no public office. 

He is a member of a number of social organizations in New 
York, including the Century Association, and the Metropohtan, 
Grolier, Riding, Ardsley, and Coimtry clubs. 

Mr. Krech has been twice married. His first wife was Miss 
Caroline Shepard, to whom he was married in December, 1884, 
and who bore him two children, Alvin (now deceased) and 
Shepard. She died in 1892, and in September, 1895, he was mar- 
ried to Miss Angeline Jackson, who has borae him f oui' children : 
Angeline, Jackson (deceased), Helen, and Margaret. 





/ 



mitu/j^i^ff-ti^ 




^i 



JOHN BROOKS LEAVITT 

THE "Queen City of the West," as Cincinnati has popularly 
been called, was the birthplace of the suliject of this biog- 
raphy. His ancestry— of Scotch-Irish and English origin— had 
been exclusively American for two hundred years. On the pa- 
ternal side, the first of the family in this coiintry was John Lea- 
vitt, who came hither from England in 1628, and settled at 
Hingham, in Massachusetts. He was a selectman of the latter 
place, and helped to build there the church, which is still stand- 
ing, and which boasts of being the oldest church edifice in the 
United States. From him was descended Humphrey H. Lea- 
vitt, LL.D., who was appointed by President Jackson to be 
United States district judge for the district of Ohio, which 
place was honorably filled by him for thirty-seven years. Jus- 
tice Leavitt was a cousin of Oliver Ellsworth, the third chief 
justice of the United States Supreme Court. 

A son of Justice Leavitt, the Rev. John McDowell Leavitt, 
LL.D., became a prominent clergyman of Cincinnati and 
president of Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He 
married Miss Bithia Brooks, and to them, in Cincinnati, on Sep- 
tember 30, 1849, John Brooks Leavitt was born. After receiving 
a primary education at home he was sent to the high school at 
Zanesville, Ohio, where he was prepared for college. He was 
graduated at Kenyon College, Gambler, Ohio, with the degree of 
A.B., in 1868. Four years later he received from Kenyon the 
degree of A.M., and in 1896 the same college conferred upon 
him the honorary degree of LL.D. From Kenyon Mr. Leavitt 
came to New York city and entered the law school of Cokunbia 
College, from which he was graduated in 1871. 

201 



202 JOHN BROOKS LEAVITT 



Soon after graduation from the law school Mr. Leavitt was 
admitted to practice. At first he was a clerk in a law office, then 
he became a partner, and in 1878 began work on his own ac- 
count. He had the usual experience of a young man in a strange 
city striving to make his way amid hard competition. Year by 
year his business increased. Among the important cases in- 
trusted to him was that of a prominent elergjanan who had 
been cliarged with grave immorality. His suit for redress was 
placed in Mr. Leavitt 's hands, with the result that he secured 
a complete vindication at the hands of the jury and in the eyes 
of the public. Another case was the prosecution of the Secre- 
tary of State, Attorney-General, and other New York State 
officers for contempt of court in a disputed election controversy. 
Mr. Leavitt was successfiil, and the officers named were heavily 
fined for their offense. 

Mr. Leavitt has not become connected with business enter- 
prises, save in a professional way, as counsel. He has held no 
political offices, for which fact he expresses much gratitude. He 
has been identified, however, with the "Good Government" 
movement in New York city, and in 1893 was induced to be a 
candidate for assemblyman on the Good Government ticket, but, 
to his own relief, just failed of election. 

He is a member of the University, City, Church, Lawyers, 
Social Reform, People's, Barnard, and Onteora clulis, the Bar 
Association of New York City, the State Bar Association, the 
American Bar Association, the Civil Service League, the Ken- 
yon College Alumni Association, and the Columbia College 
Alumni Association. He has written a book on "The Law of 
Negligence in New York," also for magazines, and made occa- 
sional addresses. 

Mr. Leavitt was married in 1879, at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, 
to Miss Mary Keith, daughter of the Rev. Ormes B. Keith of 
Philadelphia, and great-niece of Elias Boudinot, president of 
Congress at the close of the Revolution. 





/ 



^ 



LEVI ZEIGLER LETTER 



THE Leiter family were Calvinists, who emigrated from Hol- 
land in 1762. They came directly to this country and set 
tied in Washington County, Maryland, piu-chased a large tract 
of land, and foimded the town of Leitersbm'g. A few years 
later the Zeigler family, who were Lutherans, came over and 
settled in the same place. There, in the last generation, Joseph 
Leiter and Ann Zeigler were married, and there their son, Levi 
Zeigler Leiter, was born, on November 22, 1834. The boy 
received a good education, and then began business life as a 
clerk in a country store, where he spent several years. 

At the age of eighteen years he decided to seek in the West an 
ampler field for his activities, and accordingly set out in that 
direction. His first stop after leaving home was at Springfield, 
Ohio, where he got employment in the store of Peter Murray, a 
prominent merchant, and remained there a year. Then he 
pushed on to Chicago, arriving there in the summer of 1854, 
His first employment in that city was in the office of Messrs. 
Downs & Van Wyck, where he remained until January, 1856. 
Then he entered the wholesale house of Messrs. Cooley, Wads- 
worth & Co., and stayed with it through its various changes of 
organization until January 1, 1865. 

On the latter date he and Marshall Field, who had entered the 
business at about the same time with himself, and who, like 
himself, had by this time acquired a i:)roprietaT'y interest in it, 
decided to organize a business of their own. Accorchngly they 
sold out their interests in the old firm to John V. Farwell, and 
purchased a controlling interest in the bi;siuess of Potter Palmer, 
which was thereafter continued for two years as Field, Palmer, 
& Leiter, and then, down to January 1 1881. as Field, Leiter & 

203 



204 LEVI ZEIGLER LEITEK 

Co. By the exercise of rare intelligence and the soundest busi- 
ness principles the business of this firm was steadily extended 
until it became one of the largest in the coimtry, its position in 
the chy-goods trade of the Central West being absolutely supreme. 

In 1881 Mr. Leiter, having acquired a fortune and having also 
extensive real-estate and other interests, desired release from the 
exacting daily routine of business cares. Accordingly he sold 
out his interest in the firm to his partners, and began to devote 
his time more to his family, to society, to travel, and to his mag- 
nificent hbrary. Two years later he established a fine winter 
residence in Washington, D. C, where he makes his home for a 
part of every year, and where his family has taken a leading 
position in the social life of the nation's capital. 

In the rebuilding of Chicago after the gi'eat fire in 1871, and 
in the work of developing it to be the second city of the Union, 
Mr. Leiter has taken a conspicuous and honorable part. He 
has personally erected many buildings and blocks, and has 
encom'aged and assisted in the erection of others. He has held 
no public office, but has taken a keen and constant interest in 
the welfare of city. State, and nation, and has exerted a powerful 
influence for good government. He has also shown himself a 
philanthropist of a particularly practical and efficient kind. For 
many years he was a director of the Chicago Aid and Rehef 
Society, and gave much painstaking personal attention to the 
wise distriljution of charity. In various other well-directed 
charities he has been an earnest worker and liberal giver. The 
American Sunday-school Union has been one of the favorite 
instrumentalities through which he has sought to benefit his 
feUows. Thus in all that goes to advance the social and intel- 
lectual as well as the commercial interests of Chicago, he has 
been a moving spirit of more than ordinary effectiveness. 

Mr. Leiter has long been a prominent figure in the club life of 
Chicago. He was the first president of the Commercial Club, 
and did much to establish it on an assured foundation of pros- 
perity. He is now a leading member of the Chicago Club, the 
Calumet Club, the Washington Park Club, and the Union 
League Club of Chicago. He is also identified with the Chicago 
Historical Society, and played an invaluable part in the reorgan- 
ization of it after the great fire. He then contributed liberally 



LEVI ZEIGLER LEITER 205 

toward tlie new building fuud and for the purchase of books. 
The debt which has hampered the society was hfted by his 
cooperation with Mark Skinner, E. H. Sheldon, D. K. Pearson, 
S. M. Wickerson, Thomas Hoyne, and others, and the society 
was placed upon a sound basis. Mr. Leiter was president of the 
Chicago Art Institute in 1885, succeeding George Armom-, who 
was its first president. He was one of the founders of the 
Illinois Trust and Sa\dngs Bank, and has ever since been one of 
its heaviest stockholders. 

Mr. Leiter was man-ied on October 18, 1866, to Miss Mary 
Theresa Carver, daughter of Benjamin Carver and a descendant 
of John Carver, the first C-foveruor of Plymouth Colony. They 
have four childi-en. Their son, Joseph Leiter, attained world- 
wide prominence through his daring wheat speculations in 1898, 
which brought great increase of prices to the farmers and 
assisted in a general re^dval of prosperity, but resulted in heavy 
loss to himself. Theii- eldest daughter. Miss Mary Victoria 
Leiter, was married to Mr. C-feorge Curzon, the English states- 
man and man of letters. He has since been made Lord Ciu'zon 
of Kedleston, and appointed to the great office of Viceroy of 
India, and she is accordingly Lady Cm-zon, Vicereine of India. 
Then- other daughters, Miss Nancy Lathrop Carver Leiter and 
Miss Marguerite Hyde, commonly called Daisy Leiter, are 
still unmamed. 




ROBERT PACKER LINDERMAN 



ROBERT PACKER LINDERMAN, although not yet past 
' the years of early manhood, has won for himself a high 
place among men of affairs, not only of his native State, hut of 
the country at large. 

He was born at Maueh Chunk, Pennsylvania, on July 26, 
1863, and is the eldest li\ang son of the late Garrett Brodliead 
Linderman and his wife, Lucy Evelyn, daughter of the late Judge 
Asa Packard. At the age of sixteen Mr. Linderman entered the 
Mount Pleasant Military Academy at Sing-Sing-on-the-Hudson, 
where he spent four years, and was graduated with the highest 
honors as valedictorian of his class. In the fall of 1880, after 
having spent the summer in a tour through Europe, he entered 
Lehigh University, and was graduated there four years later with 
the degree of Ph. B. For scholarly attainments he was elected 
a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, and later was for two 
terms president of the Alumni Association of Lehigh University. 
For some years he has been a trustee and a member of the 
executive committee of his Alma Mater. 

After completing his course at the university, he entered the 
employ, in the fall of 1884, of Linderman & Skeer, of which firm 
his father was the senior member. At that time this firm was 
one of the largest and most important of the individual anthra- 
cite-coal operators in the State of Pennsylvania. On the death 
of his father in September, 1885, he became the head of the firm, 
and successfully conducted its extensive business until the spring 
of 1896, when, theu" coal-beds being practically exhausted, they 
retired from business. Prior to this, however, other and greater 
responsibilities had been placed upon him. On January 31, 
1885, he was elected a director of the Lehigh Valley National 



206 




^^< ^^^-J2^^y^^ cz^cA^ 



ROBERT PACKER LINDERMAN 207 

Bank of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania,. In the financial field, too, 
he proved himself such a ready scholar that upon the death of 
his father, who was the founder of the institution and its presi- 
■ dent from its organization, he was elected to the place of vice- 
president of the hank, succeeding Francis Weiss, who was 
promoted to the presidency. On March 5, 1888, after the death 
of President Weiss, Mr. Linderman was elected his successor, 
being, it was thought at that time, the youngest national bank 
president in the United States. 

In December, 1885, Mr. Linderman was elected a director of 
the Bethlehem Iron Company, to fill the vacancy caused by the 
death of his father. He immediately evinced the deepest 
interest in its affairs, and became so conversant with all the 
intricacies of the business that he was elected vice-president of 
the company in June, 1888, and president in May, 1890, so that 
when but twenty-six years of age he was at the head of one of 
the largest and most important of the great iron and steel com- 
panies in the world. As an instance of the remarkable progress 
which this great company has made under Mi\ Linderman's 
astute management, it may be stated that when he took control 
of the affairs of the corporation it had just l>egain t> , erection of 
an open-hearth and forging plant, having before that time devoted 
itself exclusively to the manufacture of Bessemer pig-iron, steel 
rails, and billets. To-day its reputation is world-wide for superior 
armor-plate, finished guns, gun-cari'iages, and castings of all 
descriptions, and its development and success, in a large measm^e, 
are unquestioiiably due to Mr. Linderman's ability and hard work, 
not less than to the fact that from the first he secured and has 
been able to retain the confidence and cooperation of his board 
of directors. 

In the spring of 1899 he was instrumental in organizing the 
Bethlehem Steel Company, with a capital of fifteen million dol- 
lars, which acquired by lease for a long period all of the rights, 
property, and franchises of the Bethlehem Iron Company, and 
was elected the first president of the Steel Company, as well as 
retaining his position as president of the Iron Company. 

In addition to these important tmsts, Mr. Linderman is the 
chairman of the South Bethlehem Supply Company, Limited, 
the largest retail store in Bethlehem ; a director in the Schuyl- 



208 EGBERT PACKER LINDEEMAN 

kill & Lehigh Valley and the Georgetown & Western Railroad 
companies ; the Earn Line Steamship Company ; the Jiu-agua 
Iron Company, Limited ; the Jefferson Coal Company ; the 
American Ordnance Company, and various other organizations. 
Mr. Linderman has heen for years a prominent member and 
vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the Nativity, 
the procathedral of the diocese of Central Pennsylvania. He is 
a trustee and a member of the executive committee of the Bishop- 
thorpe School, and a trustee of St. Luke's Hospital. He is a 
member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Sons of the Revolu- 
tion, of the American Society of Mining Engineers, president of 
the Northampton Club, the leading social organization of the 
Bethlehems, and a member of the University, Lawyers', Engi- 
neers', Down-Town, Sigma Phi, and New York Yacht clubs of 
New York, of the Ai-t, Manufacturers', and University clubs of 
Philadelphia, and of the Metropolitan Club of Washington. He 
is a member of the Sigma Phi Society, and took an active part in 
the founding of its chapters at Lehigh and Cornell universities. 

On October 15, 1884, Mr. Linderman married Ruth May, 
daughter of Robert H. Saj^e, second vice-president of the Leliigh 
Valley Raih'oad Company. They have five daughters, Ruth 
Evelyn, Mary Evelyn, Lucy Evelyn, Evleyn, and Christine, and 
one son, Robert Packer, Jr. 

Mr. Liudermau's summer home is at Fisher's Island, New 
York. 







Antr^itr, S:3a Fub. i.0 '■ '"'■■' 




FRANK G. LOGAN 

THE limitations of what men call genius are by no means 
confined to the arts, so called. They may and often do 
embrace industry and commerce and finance as well. There is 
a business genius as well as an artistic genius, and it is no less 
potent in human affairs and no less beneficent in the develop- 
ment of himian interests. The youth who by virtue of sur- 
passing ability succeeds in great affairs of business where his 
companions fail, has a touch of the same spirit that makes 
others do great things in literature or art where their comrades 
cannot. 

A measure of this spirit of high attainment seems to have 
been given to Frank G. Logan when he was born, on October 
7, 1851, on a farm in Cayuga County, New York. His father, 
Simeon Ford Logan, was of shrewd, enteri^rising Connecticut 
Yankee stock, and his mother, whose maiden name was Phoebe 
Ann Hazen, came of sturdy Dutch ancestry. The masterful 
qualities of both were inherited by the boy, and were developed 
in his early years, spent on the farm and in the local schools. 
A fine constitution, a good education, ambition, energy, and 
integrity, were his capital for the beginning of the business 
career. 

His ancestors had come westward to the American shores. 
He, too, went westward, at the age of nineteen, to seek success 
in the growing city of Chicago. There he became a dry-goods 
clerk. He wanted to become a lawyer, but had not the means 
to pursue the college course of study, so he dismissed his pro- 
fessional ambitions, and turned his attention to commerce and 
finance. After four years in the dry-goods trade he became a 
clerk for a leading Board of Trade commission house, and then, a 

209 



210 FBANK G. LOGAN 

year later, organized for himself the Board of Trade and Stock 
Exchange lionse, at the head of which he has remained for nearly 
a quarter of a century, with such success as has attended few of 
his contemporaries. His firm ranks as one of the wealthiest and 
most trustworthy in that line of business, and the extent of its 
operations may be practically reckoned from its vise of ten thou- 
sand miles of private telegraph lines. Mr. Logan has long been 
regarded as one of the representative business men of Chicago, 
and has been many times a delegate from that city to the National 
Board of Trade at Washington. 

Mr. Logan has taken a keen interest in the weKare of the city 
of his adoption. He is one of the foremost art patrons, and a 
governing member of its Ai't Institute. He has long been a 
director of its Bureau of Associated Chai'ities. He is a govern- 
ing member of its Union League Club, and for many years he 
has been a trustee of Beloit College. In these many and benefi- 
cent directions has he expended the surplus of time and energy 
left after performing the exacting duties of his great business. 

In politics Mr. Logan is an earnest Republican, though he is a 
non-partizan in municipal affairs. In religion he is an earnest 
and active member of the Congregational Church. 

He was happily married on June 15, 1882, to Miss Josie H. 
Hancock, youngest daughter of Colonel John L. Hancock, and 
they now have a daughter and four sons. Their home is in a 
fine mansion on Prairie Avenue, adorned within with one of the 
finest art collections in that city. 





.'»r^ 



I, 




LEONOR FRESNEL LOREE 



IEONOR FRESNEL LOREE, who at the age of forty- 
J three years has become the liresideut of one of the great 
raih"oad systems of the United States, the Baltimore & Ohio, 
was bom in the State of lUinois in 1858. After passing through 
preparatory schools he went to Rutgers College at New Bruns- 
wick, New Jersey, and there was graduated in 1877, at the con- 
clusion of a four years' course in which he had shown himself 
an admirable student, especially in mathematics and the sciences. 
He was for two years in the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad 
as an assistant engineer, engaged in surveying and similar work. 
Next, for two years, he was in the United States service as a 
member of the engineer corps of the Federal army, doing the 
work of a transit man. From 1881 to 1883 he was in the engi- 
neering department of the Mexican National Railway, making 
the preliminary surveys for the road fi^om the Rio Gfrande to 
Saltillo, Mexico. In 1883 he retm'ned to the United States and 
reentered the service of the Pennsylvania Railroad, on its lines 
west of Pittsburg. He was at first assistant engineer of the 
Chicago division. Next he became engineer of maintenance of 
way of the Indianapolis and Vincennes division, from 1884 to 
1886. From the latter place he went to a like place on the 
Chicago division, which he filled for two years, from 1886 to 
1888. Finally he was transferred to the same place on the 
Cleveland and Pittsburg division for one year. In 1889 he was 
made superintendent of the Cleveland and Pittsburg division of 
the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg, and filled the place 
until January 15, 1896, when he was appointed to be general 
manager of all the Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburg. He 



211 



212 LEONOK FRESNEL LOREE 

was elected, on January 1, 1901, to be fourth vice-president of 
the Pennsylvania Company. 

Having thus mastered the various departments of railroad 
management and administration, Mr. Loree was in May, 1901, 
placed in tlie very foremost rank of railroad men in the United 
States. The Pennsylvania Railroad had at this time gained a 
dominant influence in the management of the Baltimore & Ohio 
Railroad, and was thus able practically to dictate the choice 
of the latter's president. The choice fell upon Mr. Loree, who 
thus became the successor of John W. Grarrett, Samuel Spencer, 
C. F. Mayer, and John K. Cowen, with auspicious promise of 
being able to show himself their worthy successor. 

Mr. Loree has for years been held in high esteem by railroad 
men in general throughout the United States. He was elected 
president of the American Railway Association in April, 1899, 
was reelected in April, 1900, and was offered but dechned a 
second reelection in April, 1901. He was the representative of 
that association at the Sixth International Railway Congress, 
which was held in Paris in September, 1900. 

The opinion of the most judicious railroad men concerning 
his election to the presidency of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad 
was well expressed by a writer in the " Railway Age," on May 
31, 1901, as follows : 

No small honor has been bestowed upon Leonor Fresnel Loree in his .?elee- 
tion as president of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company. The Pennsyl- 
vania now dominates the Baltimore & Ohio, and the man whom it has placed 
at the head of the new acquisition must be held to represent that which is best 
and most worthy of reproduction in the management of the proprietary lines. 
Mr. Loree is considered a master of the science of railway operation. His 
forceful and persistent management of a great strike a few years ago demon- 
strated the possession of unusual executive qiialities, and altogether his reputa- 
tion now is that of just the man for the presidency of the B. & O. 



(oVT) 




"'!"„/">■ 





X C[^J\} 







FRANK ORREN LOWDEN 

I^OUR generations ago the Lowden family, progenitors of the 
- subject of this sketch, came over from Scotland and settled 
among the green hills of Vermont. There Joshua Lowden was 
born in 1783. He served valiantly as a member of the American 
army in the War of 1812. His sou, Orren Lowden, married 
Jerusha Lummis of North Adams, Massachusetts, whose father, 
John Liimmis, came from England and served in the Revolu- 
tionary War. Orreu Lowden removed to Erie County, Pennsyl- 
vania, in 1832, when that region was on the far Western frontier 
of civilization. His son, Lorenzo Orren Lowden, left the paternal 
home at the age of fourteen for New York State, and thence in 
1853 went to Minnesota. There, three years later, he married 
Nancy Elizabeth Breg, formerly of Steuben Covmty, New York, 
who was of Revolutionary stock on her mother's side. 

To this latter couple, at Sunrise City, Minnesota, Frank OiTen 
Lowden, the subject of this sketch, was liorn, on Januaiy 26, 
1861. In the fall of 1868 the family removed to Point Pleasant, 
Hardin County, Iowa. There young Lowden was educated in 
the public schools, between times working on his father's farm. 
At the age of fifteen he began himself to teach school, meantime 
preparing himself for college. In the fall of 1881 he entered the 
freshman class of Iowa State Universit}^ in which institution he 
pursued the regular com^se with distinction, and fom* years later 
he was graduated as valedictorian of his class. 

On leaving college Mr. Lowden became teacher of mathematics 
and Latin in the High School of Burlington, Iowa. His spare 
moments he devoted to the study of law, which profession he 
had elected to pursue. In July, 1886, he went to Chicago and 
entered the Union College of Law, and at the same time engaged 

213 



214 FEANK ORREN LOWDEN 

as a clerk and student in a leading law office, A year later he 
was graduated from the college as valedictorian of his class, 
receiving the first prize for oration and the first prize for scholar- 
ship. For three years thereafter he remained in the law office 
in which he had been employed. 

Then, in July, 1890, Mr. Lowden formed a partnership with 
Emery S. Walker. In May, 1892, he became a partner of 
William B. Keep, and was associated with him until September 
1, 1893. From that date he practised alone, until March 1, 1898, 
when he became the head of the firm of Lowden, Estabrook & 
Davis. 

Mr. Lowden was on January 30, 1899, commissioned lieutenant- 
colonel of the First Regiment of the Illinois National Guard. In 
the month of May following he was elected to one of the chief 
professional chairs in the Northwestern University. 

Mr. Lowden is a member of numerous social and other organi- 
zations, among which may be mentioned the Chicago Club, the 
Calumet Club, the Union League Club of Chicago, the Washing- 
ton Park, tbe Marquette, Hamilton, Chicago Literary, Sunset, 
Saddle and Cycle, Chicago GoK and Thousand Islands Yacht 
clubs. He is a member of the academic order of Phi Beta 
Kappa, and of two college fraternities, the Beta Theta Pi and 
Phi Delta Phi. He is president of tbe Law Club of Chicago, 
and a member of the Chicago, Illinois State, and American bar 
associations. In politics he is a Repiiblican. In religion he is 
a member and trustee of the Central Church. 

Mr. Lowden was married on April 29, 1896, to Miss Florence 
Pullman. They have two children. 





^f=x2.L^V 



ARTHUR FULLER LUKE 



ARTHUR FULLER LUKE, the well-known banker and 
-il\. treasurer of the United States Steel Corporation, comes of 
Enghsh ancestry on both sides of the house. His father, James 
Luke, Jr., was for many years at the head of the largest retail 
coal business in the city of Cambridge, Massachusetts. His 
mother, whose maiden name was Lydia A. Howe, was a cousin 
of Elias Howe, Jr., the inventor of the sewing-machine, and of 
Wilham Howe, the inventor of the truss-bridge. Of this parent- 
age Mr. Luke was born on January 28, 1853, at Cambridge, 
Massachusetts, and he was educated in the public schools of 
that city. 

His practical business life began when he was seventeen years 
old. He then began work as an office-boy in a wholesale cloth- 
ing house in Boston, but remained there only a few months, 
when he became messenger and general clerk in the First 
National Bank of Cambridge. After about a year's service in 
the latter place he entered, in a higher capacity, the employ of 
the National Bank of the Commonwealth in Boston, and 
remained in its service for seven years. In 1878 he was ap- 
pointed assistant national bank examiner for the city of Boston, 
which office he resigned two years later in order to become 
cashier of the National Bank of North America in that city, an 
important and successful institution with a capital of one million 
dollars. He resigned that place in 1890 to make a material 
change of business, though he still retained a directorship in 
the bank. 

His new undertaking was the financial management of the 
National Tube Works Company, then the largest manufacturer 
of wrought-iron and steel tubular goods in the world. Until 



215 



216 ARTHUR FULLER LUKE 

1893 he was its assistant treasurer, aud after that date its trea- 
surer, having the care of all the finaneial affairs of that corpora- 
tion with its eleven million dollars capital. It is worthy of note 
that dm-ing the panics of 1893-96 the corporation never allowed 
any of its obligations to become overdue, and in addition gave 
much assistance to the trade. The National Tube Woi'ks Com- 
pany was, in 1899, merged into the National Tube Company, 
with a capital of eighty million dollars, and Mr. Luke became 
treasurer of the latter corporation, with headquarters in New 
York city. Finally, in March, 1901, upon the formation of the 
United states Steel Corporation, with a capital of one bilhon 
one hundi'ed and fifty miUion dollars, Mr. Luke became its 
treasurer, which place he continued to fill, with eminent success, 
until January 1, 1902, when he resigned that office to become a 
partner in the banking house of Darr, Luke & Moore of New 
York city and Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 

In addition to the important business connections ah'eady 
mentioned, Mr. Luke is a director, and member of the finance 
committee, of the National Supply Company of Toledo aud Pitts- 
bm'g, a director of the Liberty National Bank of New York city, 
and a director of the Eliot National Bank of Boston. 

Mr. Luke was actively interested in pubhc affairs during his 
residence in Massachusetts. He served for three years as 
Councilman and Alderman of Newton, Massachusetts, and for 
several years thereafter he was one of the three commissioners 
of the sinking fund of that city. He is a member of the 
Bostonian Society and of the Commercial Club of Boston, and 
in New York is identified with the New England Society and the 
Lawyers', City, Midday, New York Athletic, Riding, and Brae 
Burn Grolf clubs. 

Mr. Luke was married, in 1878, to Miss Eliza W. Brown, 
daughter of William H. and Haniet Brown of Charlestown, 
Massachusetts. 



JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL 

THERE are few contemporary careers in the State of New 
York more perfectly illustrative of what has been called 
the " genius of accomplishment " than that of the man who, as 
president of the New York Life Insurance Company, is one of 
the foremost figures, not only in insurance, but in finance, in this 
financial center of the western hemisphere. He began his work 
in a humble station, pm'sued it faithfiilly and diligently for many 
years, and at last, by sheer force of merit, won his place at the 
head of his chosen caUiug. 

John Augustine McCall is of Scotch-Irish ancestry on both 
sides of the house. His father, who also bore the name of John 
A. McCall, was a merchant at Albany, New York. His mother's 
maiden name was Katherine MacCormack. He was born to 
them at Albany on March 2, 1849, and spent his boyhood under 
their care and training. He was sent to the public schools of 
Albany, and thence to the Albany Coumiercial College, at which 
latter institution he received a good business training. He 
was a good average student, making no especial record for him- 
self, but doubtless mastering his studies well, and at the same 
time enjoying the sports and recreations common to boys of his 
age. 

At the age of eighteen he faced the first crisis of his career. 
He had then to begin taking care of liimseK, and was called upon 
to choose his vocation in life. At once his native bent for finance 
asserted itself. He applied for a place in the banking depart- 
ment of the State government, and although he had no especial 
backing or " pull," he presently secured an engagement in the 
Assorting House for State Currency, at sixty dollars a month. 
There he worked for some time, but a little later transferred his 



218 JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL 

activities to another place, in the great business to which his 
whole life has since been devoted. 

This new place was that of a bookkeeper in the office of the 
Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Company, at Albany. The 
business of life-insiii'ance was not then nearly as prosperous and 
important as it is now, but he reahzed its possibilities with pro- 
phetic eye, and decided to stick to it. From the office of the 
Connecticut company he went, at the age of twenty years, into 
the State Insiu'ance Department at Albany, of which George W. 
Miller was then the head. He began with a subordinate clerk- 
ship, but steadily worked his way upward, through rank after 
rank. Thus he passed through the actuarial and statistical 
bureaus, and in three years was an examiner of companies. 

Mr. McCall remained an examiner for four years, and then 
was promoted on his merits to the place of deputy superinten- 
dent of the Department of Insurance, and thus became the 
prominent figui^e that he remained for so long a time. He was 
a Democrat in politics, and places in the Insurance Department 
were commonly reckoned political places. Yet so assured was 
his official worth to the people of the State, and so great and 
general was the confidence in his administration of the duties of 
his office, that he was retained in his place through two Repub- 
lican State administrations. 

In fact, it would be difficult to overestimate the value of Mr. 
McCall's work to the insurance interests, and to the people of 
this State. When he began his official work at Albany there 
was a vast amount of dishonesty in both life- and fire-insurance, 
through which great losses were occasioned to insui-ers, and 
confidence in the whole system sorely shaken. Mr. McCall ex- 
posed it mercilessly, and did incalculable good for the benefit of 
policy-holders all over the world. No less than twelve imtrust- 
worthy fire-insiu-ance companies were compelled to retire from 
business, and eighteen unsound life-insurance companies of this 
State and fifteen of other States were similarly brought to book. 
Nor did his reformatory work stop there. Several companies 
persisted in dishonest ways, until he was compelled to resort 
to the severest measures. The presidents of two of them 
were convicted by him of perjury, and were sent to the peniten- 
tiary. Since that time the insm-ance business of this State has 



JOHN AUGUSTINE McCALL 219 

been on a far sounder basis than ever before, and failures of 
companies and losses by policy-holders have been few indeed. 

Such work could not go without recognition. At the begin- 
ning of 1883 the insurance companies of the State wished to urge 
his appointment to the head of the department. He refused to 
let them do so. But he could not prevent a host of represen- 
tative bxasiness men of all parties from sending to the Governor 
a monster petition for his appointment as superintendent. " His 
indefatigable industry, enlightened endeavor, and uncompromis- 
ing fidehty to duty have given abundant proof of his fitness," 
they declared. And so Governor Cleveland appointed him to 
the office. Governor Hill, who succeeded Governor Cleveland, 
offered him a reappointment, but he declined it, and became con- 
troller of the Equitable Life Assurance Society, a place he was 
ideally fitted to fill. Then a crisis came in the affau's of the 
New York Life Insurance Company, and he was called upon to 
become its president and to rehabihtate the great institution 
from the evil ways into which it had been led. He accepted the 
call, and has fulfilled the trust with magnificent success. 

Mr. McCall is also connected with the New York Surety and 
Tmst Company, the National City Bank, the Central National 
Bank, the National Surety Company, the Mimich Reinsurance 
Company, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and the 
Ingersoll Sergeant Drill Company. He is a member of the 
Metropolitan, Colonial, Lawyers', Catholic, Merchants', Manhat- 
tan, New York Athletic, Norwood Field, the Arts, and City clubs, 
the Chamber of Commerce, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 
the Albany Society, and the National Arts Club. 

He was married at Albany, in 1870, to Miss MaiTy I. Horan of 
that citv, and has seven childi-en : Mrs. Albert MeClave, Mrs. 
D. P. kingsley, John C. McCall, Ballard McCall, Leo H. 
McCall, Sydney C. McCaU, and Chfford H. McCaU. 




JOHN JAMES McCOOK 



,LL young, all gallant, and all successful." That is the de- 



J-A. seriptiou given by James G. Blaine, in his Memou's, of a 
family that became famous during our Civil War and has ever 
since been known as " the fighting McCooks." There were two 
divisions of them — cousins, the children of Daniel and John 
McCook, brothers. They came of that stui'dy and canny Scotch- 
Irish stock which has given to this country so many of its ablest 
men. Of the sons of Daniel McCook there were nine. The first 
was named John James, but he was lost at sea, a midshipman in 
the navy, and his name was transferred to the yoimgest son, 
who was born three years later. 

The subject of this sketch was born at Carrollton, Ohio, on 
May 25, 1845. He was a student at Kenyon College when the 
war broke out, and forthwith joined the Sixth Ohio Cavalry. 
He was then only sixteen, the youngest of the " fighting Mc- 
Cooks," and by no means the least gallant or least successful. 
He began, of course, as a private soldier. In a few months he 
was promoted to be an officer. At seventeen years old he was a 
lieutenant, at eighteen a captain, at nineteen a brevet major, and 
at twenty, at the close of the war, a brevet colonel. He served 
in many camjiaigns in both the East and West. He fought at 
Perry ville, at Miu-fi*eesboro, at Chickamauga, in the Wilderness, 
and around Petersburg. He received his first brevet for gallan- 
try on the field at Shady Grove, where he was seriously wounded. 
It may l)e added that his father was killed while leading a party 
to intercept Morgan the raider, and that seven of his brothers 
were in the army, five of them rising to the rank of general. 

At the close of the war the young soldier was not yet of age. 
He went back to Kenyon College and took up his studies where 

L'20 



JOHN JAMES McCOOK 221 

he had laid them down, and in due course of time was gradu- 
ated with honorable standing. Then he went to Harvard and 
pursued a course in its law school. Having got his second 
diploma and been admitted to practice at the bar of Ohio, he 
came to this city, where the pursuit of his profession is at once 
most arduous and most promising of success and distinction. 

For many years he has been a member of the well-known firm 
of Alexander & Green, and as such has been identified ^ith 
many important cases in both the local and the United States 
coiu1;s. He was for a number of years general counsel for the 
Atchison, Topeka and Sante Fe Raih'oad, and when that road 
fell into difficulties he was made its receiver, and in that capa- 
city reorganized it. He is also legal adviser and a director of 
the Equitable Life Assurance Society, of the Mercantile Trust 
Company, of the American Surety Company, and, in one capacity 
or another, connected with various other important business 
corporations. 

In politics Colonel McCook is a stanch Repubhcan. It was a 
matter of regret to his many friends when he dechned President 
McKinley's invitation to enter his cabinet as Secretary of the 
Interior, a position for which his legal training and business 
experience exceptionally qualified him. 

Colonel McCook has by no means let his profession absorb all 
his attention and activities. He has played a conspicuous part 
in the social life of the metropohs, and has been most useful in 
promoting rehgious and educational interests. He has for some 
years been a trustee of Princeton University. He has also long 
been a leading member of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, 
and he was the prosecutor in the famous ecclesiastical trial of 
Professor Charles A. Briggs of the Union Theological Seminary. 
He is a member of the University, Union League, Union, City, 
Metropohtan, Harvard, Princeton, and Tuxedo clubs, the Ohio 
Society, the Bar Association, and the mihtary order of the 
Loyal Legion. He has received the degi'ces of Master of Arts 
from Kenyon College and fi-om Princeton University, Bachelor 
of Laws from Harvard University, and Doctor of Laws from the 
University of Kansas and Lafayette College. He is man-ied to a 
daughter of Henry M. Alexander, one of the founders of the law 
firm of which he is a member. 



FLAVEL McGEE 



FLAVEL McGEE, one of the foremost lawyers and political 
leaders in the State of New Jersey, was the son of WiUiam 
C. McGee, a Presbyterian clergyman who spent his whole pro- 
fessional hfe in a single charge, and Anna Shen-and McGee, 
whose maiden name was Clark. His paternal ancestors were of 
Scotch origin,, and were for some generations settled in Comity 
Down, Ireland, where they were linen manufactm'ers, and were 
identified with the Presbyterian Church. His paternal grand- 
father came to the United States in 1812, and engaged in the 
manufacture of linen for the remainder of his active career. On 
the maternal side Mr. McGee was descended fi'om Michael Clark, 
who came over in the Mayflower. The family removed from 
Massachusetts to Long Island, and thence to Elizabeth, now the 
city of Elizabeth, New Jersey. Mr. McGee's great-grandfather, 
Joseph Clark, left Princeton College to enlist in the patriot army 
at the outbreak of the Revolution, and served tlu'ough that war. 
Beginning as a private, he became successively second lieuten- 
ant, lieutenant, captain, assistant quartermaster, and quarter- 
master. After the war he returned to college, completed his 
course, and was graduated. He entered the ministry of the 
Presbyteinan Chui'ch, preached for a few years at AUentown, 
Monmouth County, New Jersey, and then removed to the Pres- 
byterian church in New Brunswick, New Jersey, where he spent 
the rest of his life. He was for many years a trustee of Piince- 
ton College. His son, John Flavel Clark, the father of Mr. 
McGee's mother, was a Princeton graduate, and a Presbyterian 
minister, who settled for twenty-five years at Flemington, and 
afterward at Paterson, New Jersey. Mr. McGee's father was 
graduated at Princeton in 1836, and at the Theological Seminary 

222 





iOlA/iy} /e/iyi/ i/\ 



ffcu^_ }?? -4^ 



FLAVEL McOEE 223 

there in 1841. In the latter year he became pastor of the 
united churches of Hardwick and Marksboro, respectively in 
Sussex and Warren counties, New Jersey, and remained there 
until his death, in 1867. 

Flavel McGee was born in Frehnghuysen Township, Warren 
County, New Jersey, on April 6, 1844. He was educated at the 
Newton Presbyterial Academy, the Blairstown Presbyterial 
Academy, and Princeton College, being gi-aduated from the last- 
named in 1865. Next he studied law at Belvidere, New Jersey, 
and in June, 1868, was admitted to practice as an attorney, and 
in June, 1871, as a counselor. In November, 1868, he began the 
practice of law in Jersey City, and remained in that pursuit and 
in that place for the rest of his life. 

From the beginning of his professional career Mr. McGee was 
a hard worker, and he had enough business to keep him hard at 
work. In New Jersey the distinction between attorneys and 
counselors is maintained more strictly than elsewhere. An 
attorney cannot become a counselor until after three years' 
service, and while acting in the lower capacity cannot be heard 
in the Supreme Court or the Court of Errors and Appeals. Mr. 
McGee pursued the usual course as above stated. But the rank 
he won in his first three years as attorney is well evinced by the 
fact that in the very term in which he was raised to the rank of 
a counselor he tried two cases in the Supreme Court and one in 
the Court of Errors and Appeals. 

Mr. McGee's professional career was not marked with sensa- 
tional incidents, but rather with an imbroken and constantly 
increasing success and prosperity. He paid much attention to 
the laws affecting coi-porations, and was for years counsel for a 
large number of railroad, lianking, insiu'ance, manufacturing, 
and mercantile concerns. 

Mr. McGee has been spoken of above as a political leader. 
He long took an active interest in politics as a Repubhcan, and 
did much and effective pohtieal work as a public speaker and 
a party manager. He stood high in the councils of his party, 
and in 1900 was a delegate to the National Republican Con- 
vention. He was often mentioned for public office, and was 
urged to accept nominations therefor, but invariably preferred 
to remain in private life. In 1892 he was put forward by rep- 



224 FLAVEL McGEE 

resentative men of New Jersey for a place on the bench of the 
Snpreme Coiirt of the United States, and in 1900 was promi- 
nently mentioned for the office of Chancellor of the State of 
New Jersey. 

He was a member of numerous social organizations, including 
the Union League Club and Princeton Club of New York, the 
Union League Club of Hudson County, New Jersey, the Uni- 
versity Club and the Carteret Club of Jersey City, the Bergen 
Republican Club, the Society of the Cincinnati, and the Society 
of the Sons of the American Revolution. He was also first 
vice-president of the Hudson Coimty Republican Committee. 

He was married many years ago to Miss Juha F. Randolph, 
daughter of the late judge. His seven children are named 
Francis H., Julia Randolph, Bennington Randolph, Hope Hen- 
derson, Dorothy, Helen, and Flavel. He died, widely lamented, 
on August 12, ioOl. 




JOHN EDWARD MARSH 



STEPPING STONES," one of the best-known landmarks in 
Union County, New Jersey, imtil the death of William Law- 
rence in 1830, who was the last male member of the family, had 
])een since 1740 the residence of the Lawrences. At his death 
it came into the possession of his only living child, Frances E. 
Morse Lawrence, the wife of Rolph Marsh,— her brother, John 
Lawrence, a midshipman on the United States naval ship Boh, 
Captain Steele, having perished at sea March, 1813, together 
with all on board, by the sinking of the vessel while on the Wcij 
to France. After the death of Rolph Marsh, September 2, 1881, 
it descended to his son John Edward Marsh, who has since re- 
sided there. 

The homestead plantation, Stepi^ng Stones, extends from the 
west side of St. George's Avenue to the Rah way River. The 
residence is a mansion of colonial style, in an admirable state 
of preservation, which tells of the honest and substantial work- 
manship of those old days, and is surromided by a group of old 
trees. The family which for so many generations has made its 
home in this historic mansion traces its descent from Caj^tain 
John Lawrence, who was born in Staines, near London, England, 
November 6, 1688; died at Railway, New Jersey, October 16, 
1766. His eldest son. Captain William Lawrence, who died in 
1756, was the first of the family to reside at Stepj^ing Stones. 
He was succeeded by his eldest son. Captain John Lawrence, who 
lost his life during the War of the Revolution. He was a mem- 
ber of Captain Neil's Eastern Company of Artiller_y, and took 
part in the battles of Monmouth, Trenton, and Princeton. Dur- 



225 



226 JOHN EDWAKD MARSH 

ing the French wars, mitil 1763, he was in the naval service of 
Great Britain. 

Samuel Marsh, born in Essex County, England, and member 
of the New Haven, Connecticut, colony in 1645, was the ancestor 
of Mr. Marsh. Samuel Marsh married his wife. Comfort, at 
New Haven, 1647. He remained there until the spring of 1665, 
when he, his wife, and seven children left for their new home at 
Elizabethtown, New Jersey. He was one of the eighty asso- 
ciates of that to\\ai, and died on his ])lantation near the mouth 
of the Rahway River, September, 1683. His sou John was born 
in New Haven, May 2, 1661, and died November, 1744, on the 
homestead plantation he had inherited from his father. This 
homestead is now in possession of Mrs. Childs of New York, a 
granddaughter of the late Dr. Stewart C. Marsh, who was a 
great-grandson of David, the youngest son of John Marsh. John 
Marsh's son Daniel married Mary, daughter of Henry Rolph 
of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Of his six sons, John, the eldest 
and great-grandfather of the subject of this sketch, died March 
9, 1775. 

Of the other sons of John Marsh, Daniel was quartermaster- 
general ; Henry, f oragemaster ; Christopher was from 1777 until 
the close of the war captain of the Essex Light Troop of Horse ; 
Rolph, captain First Middlesex Regiment; and Ephraim, Jr., 
recruiting officer of Essex County, New Jersey, with rank of 
captain. John Marsh, who died in 1775, left a son Isaac, his 
fourth child. To Isaac Marsh fell the duty and distinction, at 
the age of only sixteen years, as a member of Captain David 
Edgar's company of Sheldon's Dragoons, of being detailed for 
the duty of carrying to the Continental Congress at Philadel- 
phia the despatches from Washington which annoimced the vic- 
tory of the American troops at the battle of Monmouth. His 
twenty-first birthday found Isaac Marsh in command of a mer- 
chantman on a voyage of three years to the East Indies and 
return. 

When the harbor of New York was blockaded by the British 
fleet in the War of 1812, Captain Marsh's ship was the only one 
of three vessels mtrusted by the Federal Government with 
despatches to France that succeeded in getting through and de- 
livering the papers. On leaving France his ship was captured 



JOHN EDWARD MAESH 227 

by the British, and he was held a prisoner luitil the close of 
the war. 

Mr. Marsh, after spending many yeai-s in the grammar de- 
partment of Burlington College, entered Yale College, and from 
there went to Europe and matriculated as a student at the Uni- 
versities of Munich, Jena, Wuei'zburg, and the College de France 
at Paris, principally giving his time to natural sciences, and re- 
eei\ing the benefit of the instiiietion and association of Liebig, 
Pettenkofer, Haeskel, Geuther, Stresker, and Kuno Fissher. 
Since his return to America he has continued his work, purely 
for his own pleasure and the advancement of science. His busi- 
ness interest and activity are confined to the care of his owoi 
property and the management, in conjunction with his brother 
William L. Marsh, of his father's estate. Mr. Marsh is a mem- 
ber of the Society of Colonial Wars, Historical Societies of 
New York and New Jersey and the Metropolitan and Lawyers' 
clubs of New York. 

Mr. ]\Iarsh was married in 1868 to Caroline A., daughter of 
Seth M. Capron of Walden, Orange County, New York, a gradu- 
ate of the institution at West Point, an officer of the army, and 
brother of General Horace Capron, who was Commissioner of 
Agriculture vmder President Johnson. He resigned to accept a 
similar office from the Emperor of Japan, which he held for 
many years, resvdting in the great development of the island 
empire. 

His eldest child, Charles Capron Marsh, born in 1868, gradu- 
ated at Yale College in 1891 and Columbia Law School in 1894, 
and was married in 1895 to ISIiss Elizabeth Sypher. The yovmg- 
est child, Frieda Lawrence Marsh, was married April, 1896, to 
Edward Thaw of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Marsh passes a part of the year in New York city. 




ALONZO CLARK MATHER 



NINE generations ago Richard Mather came to this country 
from Toxteth Park, near Liverpool, England, and in August, 
1635, settled at Boston. His son and grandson, Increase Mather 
and Cotton Mather, were two of the most distingi;ished men of 
their time in New England. A recent writer has well said that 
two ciMituries ago the Mathers were so important a family in 
New England that for three generations the snapping of the 
finger of any one of them would have been sufficient signal for a 
revoh;tion. In the eighth generation from Richard Mather was 
William Mather, who manied Mary Ann Buell and lived at Fair- 
field, Herkimer County, New York. He was widely known as a 
writer, and as a lecturer on chemistry and the natural sciences 
to the undergraduate classes of vai'ious colleges and other insti- 
tutions of learning. At Madison, now Colgate, University at 
Hamilton, New York, he deUvered a course every vnnter for 
thirty years. 

Alonzo Clark Mather, son of the foregoing, was bom at Fair- 
field, on April 22, 1848. He was educated at the then famous 
preparatory school in that place, with which his father and 
grandfather were long identified. At the age of fifteen he 
became a clerk in a store at Springfield, Massachusetts. At 
seventeen and eighteen he had a like place at Utica, New York. 
At nineteen he began business on his O'wn account at Little 
Falls, New York. A year later, being desirous of a larger field 
for operations, he removed to Quincy, Illinois, and thence, in 
1875, to Cliieago. In the latter city he engaged in a wholesale 
trade on Madison Street, and carried it on for twenty years. 
Competition was keen, and a bankruptcy law was enacted which 




*^ ' 



Cv^SL 




s>^^AJy-^sjL.^p-^ 



ALONZO CLARK MATHER 229 

let many of his debtors escape their obligations. Still he pros- 
pered and attained marked success. 

In 1880, while coming to New York on business, Mr. Mather 
liad the luck to be side-tracked in his sleeping-car for some 
hours by an accident. He was kept awake Ijy the moaning of 
the cattle in a stock-car on the next track, and in the morning 
he found that in then- agony the cattle had been fighting and 
struggling among themselves until five were dead "and "three 
more badly hurt. This incident set him to work devising a 
more comfortable and humane style of car for the conveyance 
of live stock. He invented such a car, and since 1887 has 
devoted his attention almost entii-ely to the manufacture and 
introduction of it. Thousands of his cars are now in use on the 
principal railroads engaged in the transportation of cattle. This 
and other inventions have brought him much profit and his car 
a gold medal from the American Humane Society and similar 
bodies. Mr. Mather has also invented devices for utilizing wave- 
and tide-power, and the power of rapid river currents for operat- 
ing canal-boats by electricity and running electric cars on the 
tow-path at the same time without interference, for automobile 
vehicles, steel car-trucks, pneumatic springs, etc. 

He is president of the Mather Humane Transportation Com- 
pany, the Mather Stock Car Company, the Mather Automatic 
Car Coupler Company, the Buffalo Bridge and Power Company, 
and the Royal Hook Glove Company. 

He is a member of the Union League Club of Chicago, and 
the Chicago Yacht, Marquette, and Twentieth Century clubs of 
the same city. 




DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 

FEW narratives are more fascinating than those which tell of 
the rise of men, hy dint of native virtue and energy, from 
comparatively humble stations in hfe to vast wealth and influence 
and power for good among their fellow-men. The United States 
is notably the land where such careers ai-e most to be found, and 
among those to be observed here there is not one more worthy 
of attention than that of Darius Ogden Mills. He comes of an 
old north of England family which at the middle of the last 
century came to this country and settled on Long Island, and then 
removed to Connecticut, near the New York line. Some mem- 
bers of the family, indeed, established themselves in Westchester 
County, New York, and there, in the last generation, James Mills 
was supei-visor and justice of peace for the town of North 
Salem. He was a man of high standing in the community, and 
was successfully engaged in various lines of business, but, late in 
life, lost most of his property througli unfortunate investments. 
He died at Sing Sing in ISil, leaving his sons to make their own 
fortunes. 

Darius Ogden Mills, son of James Mills, was bom at North 
Salem on September 5, 1825, and inherited the rugged health, 
mental acuteness, and flawless integrity that had distinguished 
his father. He received his education at the North Salem 
Academy, and at the Mount Pleasant Academy at Sing Sing, ex- 
cellent institutions of that rank. He left the Sing Sing school 
at the age of seventeen to complete his training in the wider and 
higher school of the business world. For several years he per- 
formed the duties of a clerkship in New York, bringing to them 
the qualities of person and character that assure — or, still better, 
deserve — success. In 1847, on the invitation of his cousin, E. 

230 



DABIUS OGDEN MILLS 231 

J, Townsend, he went to Buffalo, New York, to serve as cashier 
of the Merchants' Bank of Erie County, and also to form a busi- 
ness partnership with Mr. Townsend. The bank was one of 
deposit and issue, under a special charter, and did a prosperous 
business. But in December, 1848, Mr. Mills decided to leave it 
and go to California, where the discovery of gold gave promise 
of untold gains for enterprising men, Mr. Townsend agreed to 
maintain, in any business which Mr. Mills might undertake in 
California, the same relative interest which they had in the bank, 
and to protect all drafts which Mr. Mills might make. And so 
Mr. Mills followed his two brothers to the Pacific coast, where 
he arrived in June, 1849. 

It has not escaped observation that some of the largest for- 
tunes were made in Cahfoniia, not in digging gold, but in de- 
veloping the ordinary industries of the country. And the latter 
were, as a rule, the more stable. Adventurous men who went 
thither to pick up gold were often disappointed in their quest. 
Those who did make fortunes sometimes lost them again, on the 
familiar principle, " Easy come, easy go." The substantial for- 
tunes, or most of them, were made by those who set about sys- 
tematically to develop the general resources of the country, to 
create varied industries, and to promote trade and commerce. 

To such latter enterjirises Mr. Mills decided to devote his at- 
tention. His first undertaking, on reaching Califoi'nia, was to 
buy a stock of general merchandise and with it make a trading 
expedition to Stockton and the San Joaquin Valley. To this 
end, he entered into partnership with one of his fellow- voyagers, 
and together they bought a small sailing-vessel, loaded it with 
goods, and went to Stockton, where the cargo was sold at a 
profit. The two partners then separated, and Mr. Mills returned 
to Sacramento, deeming that the best center of trade with the 
miners. He opened a store of general nierchandise, buying gold- 
dust, and deahng in exchange on New York. By November, 
1849, he had cleared forty thousand dollars, and was so well 
pleased with his prospects that he decided to return to Buffalo, 
close out all his interests there, and make Cahfornia his home. 
This he did, and in 1850 was at work again m Sacramento. 

Thereafter his record was largely the financial and business 
record of the Pacific coast. He estabhshed a bank, called the 



232 DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 

Bank of D. O. Mills & Co., which is still the principal bank in 
Sacramento. A branch of it was opened at Columbia, under the 
management of his brothers James and Edgar. In 1857, owing 
to too close application to business, his health became impaired, 
and he went to Europe for rest. Returning with health and 
strength restored, he resumed his business with more energy 
than ever, and soon had on hand greater undertakings than he 
had yet known. It was owing to his reputation for judgment, 
decision, shrewdness, and absolute integrity that he was chosen 
president of the great Bank of Califoraia, when that institution 
was organized in 1864. It began with a capital of two million 
dollars, which was soon increased to five million dollars, and, un- 
der his wise management, it became known and trusted through- 
out the world, and was one of the chief factors in developing the 
greatness of the State. Mr. Mills had taken the presidency re- 
luctantly, and with the intention of soon resigning it, but he 
was prevailed upon to keep the place until 1873. Then he in- 
sisted upon retiring from active business. He left the bank in 
splendid condition, with capital secure, profits large, and credit 
unquestioned. Two yeai's later he was called back to save it 
from utter ruin. Its former cashier, William C. Ralston, had 
been made its new president. He went to Mr. MiDs and asked 
him to save him from individual faihu-e. Mr. Mills loaned him 
nine hundred thousand dollars. Then it came out that the bank 
was in trouble, and two days later its doors were closed. It was 
found that there had been an overissue of twelve thousand 
shares of its stock, which had been taken in with Mr. MiUs's 
loan and retired just before the failure, Mr. Ralston was asked 
by the dii'ectors to resign the presidency, which he did ; and be- 
fore the meeting of the directors adjourned, his dead body was 
found in the bay — whether the victim of accident or suicide 
was never determined. 

Mr. Mills again became president of the bank, serving without 
compensation. Its liabilities were then $19,585,000, including 
$5,000,000 capital stock and $1,000,000 reserve, while it had on 
hand $100,000 in cash, besides its general assets. Mr. Mills and 
the other directors raised a fiind of $7,895,000, of which Mr. 
Mills subscribed $1,000,000. Mr. Mills, in conjunction with 
William Sharon and Thomas BeU, guaranteed payment of the 



DARIUS OGDEN MILLS 233 

outstanding drafts and credits of the bank ; and on September 
30, one month and five days after its suspension, the bank re- 
sumed business on a sound foimdation. By Mr. Mills's timely 
and skilful management, the bank had been saved and a disas- 
trous panic on the Pacific coast had been averted. Having thus 
restored the bank's prosperity, Mr. Mills retired from its presi- 
dency in 1878. 

Dm-ing his residence in California, Mr. Mills identified himself 
with the general business interests of that State, and invested 
largely in land, mines, railroads, etc. He also identified him- 
self with the social and educational interests, becoming a regent 
and treasurer of the University of California, and endowing with 
seventy-five thousand dollars a professoi'ship in that institution. 
He was also one of the first trustees of the Lick estate and the 
Lick Observatory. 

In 1880 Mr. Mills transferred his home and much of his capi- 
tal to New York, and has since been chiefiy identified with this 
metropolis. He retains, however, a fine estate at Millbrae, in 
San Mateo County, California, as well as many investments in 
that State. In New^ York he has become an investor in many 
substantial properties, and thus one of the gi'eat financial forces 
of the city. He has erected on Broad and WaU streets a great 
office building, which bears his name, and a similar building in 
San Francisco. 

In 1888 Mr. Mills opened and gave to the city a fine training- 
school for male nm-ses, which he had founded and endowed in 
connection with Bellevue Hospital. In 1897-98 he built and 
opened in New York two gi'eat hotels, known as Mills Houses 
Nos. 1 and 2. These are equipped with the latest and best ap- 
pliances, and are intended for the transient or permanent homes 
of worthy men of moderate means, who cannot afford to pay the 
high prices of ordinary hotels, but desire something better than 
the squalor of the cheap lodging-hoiisos. The houses accommo- 
date many hundreds of guests, and are always filled, and are 
justly to be ranked among the most beneficent institutions ever 
devised for the aid of the laboring masses. 

Not almsgiving, but economy, is the key-note of the Mills 
houses. It is Mr. Mills's theory that industry, education, and 
economy are the three prime factors for the promotion of the 



234 DABIUS OGDEN MILLS 

popular welfare. No one has exemplified the first more perfectly 
than he has in his own career. The second he has generously 
promoted by his endowments of educational institutions. The 
third, and not least, finds concrete expression and effective prac- 
tice in the Mills houses. " We are too extravagant in this coun- 
try," said Mr. Mills, in discussing some social problems. " There 
is more waste here than in any other country. Persons of small 
means as well as persons of large means spend a great deal more 
money than is necessary in su})plying their needs. The value of 
money is not generally appreciated, and anything in the direction 
of an object-lesson in that direction cannot fail to have a benefi- 
cial effect. One of my objects in establishing these model 
cheap hotels was to encourage men of limited means to practise 
economy by enabling them to live comfortably at a very small 
outlay." 

It was in such a spirit of pure and practical philanthropy that 
Mr. Mills established these hotels. The first one. Mills House 
No 1, is in Bleecker Street. The second, Mills House No. 2, is 
in Rivington Street. Those are districts of the city marked at 
once with industry and with poverty. They are thronged with 
men who make just enough for a living, and who are danger- 
ously near the edge of pauperism or criminality. There are 
hundi^eds of industrious and well-meaning young men who have 
been unable, under the old conditions, to save any part of their 
small incomes. The establishment of these houses enables them 
to save, and assures them comfortable homes in surroundings that 
are sanitary both for the body and for the mind. Their wages 
are not inci'eased, and they are not forced to curtail their desires 
or needs. But the purchasing power of their wages, for the 
satisfaction of their legitimate desires, is increased by the elimi- 
nation of waste and extravagance. That is the philosophy of 
the enterprise. 

While thus providing for the welfare and advancement of the 
male wage-earner, Mr. Mills has not overlooked the interests of 
the families, the married poor, and the women of the masses. 
The Mills hotels are intended for single men ; but he has built 
several model apartment-houses for the use of families of small 
means, in which cleanliness and order, good morals and good 
plumbing, decent associations and the conveniences of modem 



DAKIUS OGDEN MILLS 235 

civilization, can be had at even a less price than has been paid 
for wretched quarters in the slums. His experience as a land- 
lord of such property has proved to Mr. Mills that even the 
poorest of the poor respond quickly to improved conditions and 
environments, and cooperate with their benefactors in striving 
to better their standard of life. It may be observed in passing 
that these institutions, founded by Mr. Mills, are serving as 
models for others of similar pm-port in other cities, so that we 
may properly regard them as the beginning of a general move- 
ment for the better lodging and better hving of the poor, and of 
an increase of thrift among the wage-earners of America. In 
founding this great enterprise Mr. Mills assured for himself — 
though nothing was further from his purpose than self-glorifica- 
tion — a rank by the side of Peabody and the other most eminent 
philanthropists of the century, those philanthropists who have 
not only helped their fellow-men, but, what is best of aU, have 
helped them to help themselves. 

Mr. Mills was married, in 185-i, to Miss Jane T. Cunningham, 
who died in April, 1888. She bore him two children, Ogden 
Mills, a well-known member of the social and business worlds, 
and Elizabeth, wife of the Hon. Whitelaw Reid. Mr. Mills is a 
member of the Century, Metropolitan, Union, Union League, 
Knickerbocker, and other clubs, and a ti-ustee of the Metropolitan 
Museum of Ai*t and of the Museimi of Natural History, and is an 
active worker in and generous benefactor of various other insti- 
tutions and enteiprises for the public good. He remains, as he 
has always been, a man of quiet tastes, of methodical habits, 
and of unflagging industry. He is in his own hfe a constant 
exemphfication of the theories of industry, intelligence, and 
economy which he advocates, and he has himself demonstrated 
their beneficence to the individual and to the community. He 
gives close personal attention to all the departments of his vast 
and varied business interests, without ever permitting business 
to make him its slave. Commanding the gratitude of many and 
the respect of all, and maintaining his own integrity of physical 
health, inteUectual acumen, and moral character, he embodies in 
himself a fine type of the successful and public-spirited American 
citizen. 



DAVID H. MOFFAT 



DAVID H. MOFFAT was born at Washingtonville, in Orange 
County, New York, on July 22, 1839. At the age of 
twelve years he left the parental roof, and made his way to the 
great metropolis of the nation, toward which his childish fancy 
and ambition had already often turned. 

He had in New York no acquaintance, no prospect, no hope, 
no influence. He came as a stranger, to seek his own oppor- 
tunity and to make the best of it, relying solely upon his o\Yn 
merits and energy. He found himself only one amid jostling 
and selfish thousands, all intent upon winning fortune, or at 
least earning a living. His boyish ideas had invariably turned 
toward the business of a banker, the very name being suggestive 
of wealth. In that business, therefore, he sought an opening, 
and presently succeeded in getting employment as a runner, or 
messenger, in the New York Exchange Bank, He must have 
been unusually mature in mind and body for his years, for the 
work which he then vxndertook was such as is customarily given 
to young or even matui*e men. Yet he not only undertook the 
work, but he performed it faithfully and satisfactorily. It was 
arduous labor, and burdened with great responsibilities, for he 
was often intrasted with large sums of money and secuiities, 
which he had to carry from one bank to another in the cum- 
brous system of indi\ddual exchanges now conveniently managed 
through the Clearing-house. No higher tribute could be paid 
to the Ijoy than is implied in the simple record that he did his 
duty in this place successfully and to the entire satisfaction of 
the bank, so that he remained in its employ four years, at the 
end of which he was promoted to the then highly important and 
responsible office of assistant teller, corresponding under the 



236 



DAVID H. MOFFAT 237 

present system of organization to that of assistant cashier. An 
assistant cashier under sixteen years of age is another rarity in 
banking. But in this case it was a justifiable experiment. The 
lad filled that place with the same faithfulness and ability that 
had marked his first work, and he might doubtless have remained 
with the bank permanently, working his way through slieer 
merit to higher and stiD higher places, had he been so inchned. 

This bank was his school, college. Alma Mater. His four 
years in it gave him his education and discipline. And at the 
end of that course he voluntarily went out from its walls, to 
seek, if possible, a more extended opportunity elsewhere. An 
elder brother of his had some time before emigrated to Iowa, 
which was then on the extreme Western frontier, and was the 
goal toward which the tide of Western migration seemed most 
to be setting. He wrote to David, telling him of the oppor- 
tunities in that new commonwealth, and m-ging him to come 
thither. As an inducement, he secured for him, if he would eome 
and take it, the place of teller in the bank of A. J. Stevens & Co., 
at Des Moines. David did not hesitate, but immediately re- 
signed his place in the New York bank, and set his face toward 
the setting sun. It was in 1855 that he, then a lad of only six- 
teen years, arrived in the Western city and became teller of one 
of its leading banks. His work there was of the same high 
order as before. His accuracy, his keen perceptions, and his 
orderly methods attracted much attention. Among those who 
noticed his work was B. F. Allen, a leading capitalist of the 
West, who was on the point of opening a bank in the city of 
Omaha. He offered young Moffat the place of cashier in it, 
and the latter accepted it, and went forthwith to Omaha to 
begin his duties. 

That was in 1856. Thus at the age of seventeen the youth, 
five years after leaving home to make his own way in the world, 
was installed as cashier and general manager of an important 
banking institution in the West, having large sums of money 
under his control, and being responsible for the prosperous 
progi-ess of a large and potential business. It was such a place 
as is commonly filled by men of mature years and long experi- 
ence, but he filled it for four years with eminent success. Then, 
in 1859, Mr. Allen decided to transfer his interests elsewhere, 



238 DAVID H. MOFFAT 

and the bank went into voluntary liquidation, settling with all 
its creditors in fidl. 

" Pike's Peak or bust ! " was the picturesque cry raised in 
1860, as a tumultuous tide of fortune-seekers began to sweep 
westward again, toward the Rocky Mountains. Mr. Moftat, 
having then just reached his majority, decided to join it and 
try his skill on the new frontier. Accordingly he formed a 
partnership with C. C. Woolworth of St. Joseph, Missouri, in 
the book and stationery trade. They loaded an assorted stock 
of such goods upon four huge wagons, or prairie-schoouers, 
and, with a few companions, Mr. Moffat personally conducted 
the caravan across the plains, himself holding the reins over 
the leading teams. It was on March 17, 1860, that he reached 
his destination and opened the house of Woolworth & Moffat, 
on Ferry Street, Auraria. To the present generation the name 
of Auraria is strange, so it must be explained that that was 
the original name of Denver, Colorado. 

The adventure was a profitable one. There was a large and 
growing demand for business stationery, for paper on wliich to 
print the newspapers which were estabhshed there, and for 
books and periodicals. In a few years the establishment grew 
iuto one of the most prosperous and profitable mercantile houses 
of the growing city. Mr. Moffat was its leading spirit, and its 
success was chiefly due to his energy and foresight. 

But the young man's fancy still turned toward his first busi- 
ness love. He kept on with the stationery house, but at the 
same time resumed the work of a banker. In 1865 the place 
of cashier of the First National Bank of Denver was offered to 
him. He accepted it with readiness, for, though the bank had 
been organized only a few months, he saw in it almost un- 
bounded opportunities. In that bank the bulk of his life-work 
has been done. He has been connected with it ever since his 
first entry into it in 1865, and since 1881 has been its president. 
The bank has grown with the city in which it located, and is 
one of the most important institutions of the kind in the "West. 

But even this important place did not absorb the whole of 
Mr. Moffat's attention. He was actively associated in tlie con- 
struction of various railroads, among them the Denver Pacific, 
the Boulder Valley, the Denver & South Park, the Golden 



DAVID H. MOFFAT 239 

Boulder & Caribou, the Denver & New Orleans (now the Colo- 
rado & Southern), and the Florence & Cripple Creek. In all 
these enterprises he was the principal financier. 

About 1879 he also turned some attention to mining. He 
became associated with Mr. Chaffee in the Little Pittsburg 
mmes at Leadville, and since then has become one of the 
largest mine-owners in the State of Colorado. He became a 
prominent factor in the affairs of Leadville, and afterward in 
the development of Aspen and Cripple Creek. His profits from 
these veutm-es have been large, and his iuiiuence in the business 
has been for the benefit of all legitimately concerned in it. He 
likewise took a leading part in the regeneration of the Rio 
Crrande Railroad, with splendid results. 

Many times in the last score of years he has been impoi'tuned 
to enter the active field of politics, and more than one important 
office would have been his for the acceptance. He consistently 
declined, however, to become a candidate for any public office, 
saying that his inclinations lay rather in the dh'ection of busi- 
ness, and he was not willing to abandon the assured success of 
business for the dubious possibilities of the political arena. He 
has, however, always taken a citizen's interest in politics, and on 
some occasions has exerted no little influence in a campaign. 

In reviewing this remarkable career, it would be unpardonable 
not to refer to Mr. Moffat's innumerable deeds of benevolence, 
though it is impossible to specify them. They have been per- 
formed unostentatiously, and remain to this day impublished 
and unknown, save to the recipients of his bounty. 

The cardinal virtues of his character are integrity, generosity, 
determination, energy, and an amiable desire for the good of his 
fellow-men, as weU as for himself. His phenomenal success as 
a banker is to be attributed to his natural aptitude for such work. 
The impulse which led him to it at the age of twelve years was 
a true one. No doubt he would have won equal success in trade 
or manufactures had his inclination led hun in such a direction. 
But his purpose was single. When he entered New York alone, 
a boy not yet in his teens, he paid no attention to possible open- 
ings in shop or store, but went straight to the banks, in the 
financial center of the city, and having once gained a foothold 
there, made his way on unerringly. 



240 DAVID H. MOFFAT 

This singleness of purpose was not diverted nor divided by 
any of the incidents of his career, whether favorable or dis- 
couraging. There are those whose heads seem to be turned by 
success, and others whose spirits appear to be broken by dis- 
couragement. He belongs to neither of those classes. At the 
beginning of his career he was gifted with phenomenal pre- 
science, which enabled him to select for himself the very work for 
which his aptitude was afterward seen to be greatest ; and there- 
after he vindicated that choice by his own energy and constancy. 
The spectacle of a friendless boy, only just entering his teens, 
going to New York on his own account to become a banker, 
might well be regarded as both amusing and presumptuous. 
Viewed throtigh the perspective of attained success of the high- 
est order, it defies and confuses criticism. 



<Si^ 





e:>^ 



JAMES HOBART MOORE 



THE junior member of the famous Chicago firm of Moore 
Brothers, lawyers and financiers, is James Hobart Moore, 
son of Nathaniel F. and Rachel A. Beckwith Moore, who was 
born on June 14, 1852, at the little town of Berkshii'e, Tioga 
County, New York. He was well educated, at fii'st in the local 
schools and then at the Cortland Academy, Homer, New York. 
His tastes leading hun to business and finance rather than to fur- 
ther study, he (hd not go on to college, as his elder brother had 
done, but at once entered his father's banking house at Greene, 
New York. There he was thoroughly trained in the details of 
finance and practical banking, and was prepared for further en- 
terprises in that line. In 1871, when only nineteen years of age, 
he entered the service of the Susquehanna Bank, at Binghamton, 
New York, and remained in it for two years, with the hearty 
approval and commendation of his employers. 

He was, however, impressed with what he deemed to be the 
superior opportunities offered in the West, and so, in 1873, he 
removed to Chicago. In that city he quickly secured profita- 
])le employment, and occupied successively and successfully 
several positions of trust during a period of five years. Perceiv- 
ing the value of a legal education in the conduct of large busi- 
nesses, he then entered, in 1878, the law office of Small & Moore, 
in which his elder brother, W. H. Moore, was junior partner. 
There he devoted himself to his studies with great earnestness, 
and in due time was admitted to the bar. About that time Mr. 
Small died, and Mr. Moore became a member of the firm, in part- 
nership with his brother, under the style of Moore Brothers. 

This law fu-m has had an exceptionally successful career, 
largely as counsel for large corporations and trustee for estates. 



241 



242 JAMES HOBABT MOORE 

The Adams and American Express companies and the Vander- 
hilt raih'oad interests have been among its clients. It has also 
done much in the organization of corporations, and the consoli- 
dation of business interests into what are commonly called trusts. 
In promoting the Diamond Match Company the firm played a 
leading part. The operation promised great success until the 
financial panic of 1896, caused by pohtical imcertainty, brought 
disaster, and left the Moore Brothers with $4,000,000 of debts. 
Every dollar of this indebtedness was, however, soon paid off, 
and the firm went on more prosperously than before. 

Among the other great financial enterprises in which it has 
been conspicuously concerned may be mentioned the formation 
of the American Tin Plate Company, with $50,000,000 capital, of 
which $10,000,000 in common stock was allotted to the Moores ; 
and the National Biscuit Companj', with $55,000,000 capital, of 
which they received $6,000,000 in common stock. 

In the work of this firm the younger Mr. Moore has played his 
full part. He is a man of unusually clear perceptions, and is a 
good judge of men. In manner he is at once dignified and 
affable. His legal instincts and methods are unerring, and the 
most comphcated problems are um'aveled by him with ease. 
His own success has not deprived him of interest in those who 
are at the bottom of the ladder, and it is said that many a young 
man in Chicago has been helped to success by him. 

In politics Mr. Moore is a Democrat, but he has held no office, 
and takes no part in political affairs beyond that of a private 
citizen. 

He was married in Chicago, on April 26, 1883, to Miss Lora 
Josephine Small, daughter of his brother's former partner, 
Edward A. Small, and sister to his brother's wife. Their union 
has been crowned with one son. 



<Si£i) 






^^U^c. 




/ 



WILLIAM H. MOORE 



DO you know Moore Brothers '? " a Chicago business man was 
asked. "Who does not?" was his reply. "Their vast 
and successful operations are the wonder of the business world." 
The tribute was none too high for a firm that, after being caught 
in one of the most overwhelming panics of modern times, within 
a year paid oft', in full, debts of more than $4-,000,000, and con- 
tinued in business with a clean record, a big l)ank-account, and 
the unhesitating confidence of the community. 

William H. Moore, the senior meml)er of this firm, was born 
at Utica, New York, on October 25, 18-18, the son of Nathaniel 
F. Moore, a native of this State, of New England parentage, 
who was widely known and respected as a successful merchant 
and banker. The maiden name of Mr. Moore's mother was 
Rachel A. Beckwith. She was a daughter of George Beckwith 
of Triangle, New York. The Moore family being well-to-do, 
William enjoyed good educational advantages. He studied at 
a seminary at Oneida, and at the Cortland Academy at Homer, 
New York, and then entered Amherst College in 1867. It was 
his aml^itiou to complete the full college course, and he made 
admirable progress toward doing so ; but his health was not 
equal to the strain, and he was compelled to leave college before 
the graduation of his class. In quest of health he visited Wis- 
consin, and finding the chmate beneficial to him, settled at Eau 
Claire and began the study of the law in the office of W. P. 
Bartlett. He was admitted to the bar at Eau Claire in 1872, 
but finding his health had l)een somewhat impaired by his close 
attention to study, he then, instead of beginning practice, went 
to the Pacific coast for a few months. In the fall of 1872, how- 
ever, he returned to Eau Claire, and thence went to Chicago to 
pursue his profession. 



243 



244 WILLIAM H. MOORE 

He entered the office of E. A. Small as niauaging clerk, and a 
year and a half later was made a partner iu the firm of Small & 
Moore. The business was largely that of attorney for large 
corporations, and the firm had a prosperous career until the 
death of Mr. Small, early in 1882. Mr. Moore then formed a 
partnership with his younger brother, J. H. Moore, who had 
just been admitted to the bar. Five years later W. A. Purcell 
became a partner, and the firm was known as W. H. & J. H. 
Moore & Pm-cell. It was one of the best known and most 
prosperous law firms in Chicago, its large clientage being chiefly 
composed of important business houses, estates, and corpora- 
tions. Mr. Moore was for many years the trial lawyer of the 
firm, and its success was due in a great measm"e to his ability 
and devotion. His thorough knowledge of corporation law made 
him a recognized authority on the subject. His services were 
often called into requisition for the framing of charters, bills of 
incorporation, and similar legal instruments of the highest 
importance. He was also the organizer of a number of com- 
panies, with brilliant success. Among the permanent clients of 
the firm were such great corporations as the Adams and Ameri- 
can Express companies, and the Vanderbilt fast freight lines. 

Its connection with the Diamond Match Company, however, 
brought the firm into its great prominence, and led to the most 
sensational uicidents in its career. In the spring of 1896 the 
stock of that coi-poration, under their management, began to rise 
from 140, where it then stood, until in May it reached 284, and 
was expected to go on to 400 or even higher. An unexpected 
tiu'n in politics, however, precipitated a lousiness panic. In 
August the crisis was reached. The Chicago Stock Exchange 
was closed, not to reopen until November. Diamond Match 
Stock fell with a crash, and the firm of Moore Brothers was left 
with debts of $4,000,000 or more. The brothers simply settled 
down to work a little harder than ever, and in less than a year 
paid of£ every dollar of indebtedness, and placed their affairs on 
a sound and prosperous basis. This they accomphshed largely 
through their consolidation of biscuit-manufacturing concerns 
into the gigantic National Biscuit Company, with $55,000,000 of 
capital. For their services in that consohdation the brothers 
received $6,000,000 in common stock of the new corporation. 



WILLIAM H. MOORE 245 

Following this successful deal, Mr, Moore and his brother 
went on in the same line. They undertook the consolidation 
of various tin-plate manufactui-inQ- concerns into one great coi'- 
poration, the American Tin Plate Company, with $50,000,000 
capital, and they received $10,000,000 of common stock. 

In the final settlement of their indebtedness the brothers gave 
notes for some hundreds of thousands of dollars, to run for two 
years without interest. But a few days later they agreeably 
surprised then* creditors by paying the notes in full, in cash. 
Within ten days they thus paid out $500,000, and then were free 
and clear of all obhgations, with a handsome balance to their 
credit in the banks. 

Mr. Moore is a man of social and cultivated tastes. He is a 
collector of fine pictures, books, and similar objects, the owner 
of many thoroughbred horses, and an enthusiastic golf-player. 
He belongs to a number of the best clubs, of which he is a popu- 
lar member. 

He was married, in 1879, to Miss Ada Small, daughter of his 
fomier law partner, Edward A. Small, and they now have a 
family of three sons. 




JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN 



rilHE Morgan family, which for several generations has been 
J- conspicuous in commerce, finance, and the public service, is 
of Welsh origin, as the name implies. It was planted in this 
country by two brothers. Miles and James Morgan, who settled 
in Massachusetts in 1636. From the latter were descended 
Charles Morgan, the founder of the Morgan Railroad and Steam- 
ship lines ; Edwin D. Morgan, the merchant and famous War 
Governor of New York ; David P, Morgan, the banker and 
broker ; George Denison Morgan, Edwin B, Morgan, and other 
men conspicuous in business and public life. From Miles Mor- 
gan were also descended various men of note, foremost among 
them in the last generation being Jimius Spencer Morgan, who, 
after a prosperous career as a merchant in Hartford, Connecticut, 
and Boston, Massachusetts, became, in 1854, the partner of George 
Peabody, the famous banker and philanthropist. Ten years later 
he succeeded Mr. Peabody, and made the banking house of J. S. 
Morgan & Co. one of the foremost in the world. He married 
Jidiet Pierpont, a woman of exceptional force of character, and 
a daughter of the Rev. John Pierpont of Boston. Their first 
child, boi-n at Hartford, Connecticut, on April 17, 1837, is the 
subject of this biogi-aphy. 

John Pierpont Morgan inherited from both his parents the 
mental and spiritual characteristics which distinguished them, 
and at an early age inclined toward the business in which his 
father had achieved his greatest success. He was finely edu- 
cated, at the English High School in Boston, and at the Univer- 
sity of Gottingen in Germany. At the age of twenty years he 
returned to America to l^ecome a banker. With that end in view 
he entered the private banking house of Duncan, Sherman & 
Co., one of the foremost in New Yoi'k city, and devoted himself 



l.'4() 



JOHN PIERPONT MORGAN 247 

to a thorough mastery of the business. This he achieved to so 
good purpose that at the end of tlu-ee years he was appointed 
the American agent and attorney of George Peabody & Co., a 
place which he continued to hold after his father's firm had 
succeeded Mr. Peabody. In 1864 he engaged in banking on his 
own account, as a member of the firm of Dabney, Morgan & Co. 
of New York. This firm confined its dealings to legitimate in- 
vestment securities, and thus achieved much success and won 
enviable reputation for trustworthiness. Finally, in 1871, Mr. 
Morgan became the junior partner of the firm of Drexel, Morgan 
& Co., one of the foremost banking houses of America; and 
through the death of the elder partners he is now its head, and 
thus probably the gi-eatest private banker in this country and 
one of the greatest in the world. 

Mr. Morgan has made a specialty of reorganizing railroad com- 
panies and restoring them to prosperity. Among the railroads 
with which he has thus been connected may be recalled the 
Albany and Susquehanna, in dealing with which he won a 
notable victory over strong opponents in 18G9 ; the West Shore ; 
the Philadelphia and Reading; the Richmond Terminal and its 
successor, the Southern ; the Erie, the New England, and others. 
He has also done similar work in other departments of industry. 
For example, when the great publishing house of Harper & 
Brothers failed, in November, 1899, it was he, whose firm was the 
principal creditor, who took the lead in reorganization and in 
placing the company on a sound footing again. He has likewise 
been identified with the placing upon the market of large issues 
of government bonds. In 1877, in cooperation with August 
Belmont and the Rothschilds, he floated two hundred and sixty 
million dollars of four-per-cent. bonds. In February, 1895, the 
Belmont-Morgan syndicate successfully placed another great 
issue of United States bonds. Indeed, for years Mr. Morgan's 
firm has been recognized as one of the foremost in America for 
such enterprises. 

The business corporations in which Mr. Morgan is interested 
as an investor and as a director include the National Bank of 
Commerce, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, 
the Lake Shore and Micliigan Southern Railroad, the West Shore 
Raih-oad, the New York, New Haven and Hartford RaQroad, the 



248 JOHN PIEKPONT MOBGAN 

Pullman Palace Car Company, the Mexican Telegraph Company, 
the Western Union Telegraph Company, the Manufactiu-ing 
Investment Company, the United States Steel Corporation, 
the General Electric Company, the Madison Square Garden 
Company, the Metropolitan Opera House, and others. In 
1902 he organized a combination of a number of leading trans- 
atlantic steamship hues in the greatest shipping syndicate ever 

formed. 

Mr. Morgan takes a keen interest in yachting, and for years 
has exerted a dominant influence over that fine sport in Ameri- 
can waters. He has been one of the chief patrons of the Ameri- 
can boats in the series of international races for the famous 
Anieric<rs cup, and is largely to be credited with the success in 
keeping that coveted trophy on this side of the Atlantic. He is 
himself the owner of the Corsair, one of the largest and finest 
steam-yachts afloat. His patronage of gi-and opera, literature, 
and art, and his leadership in all movements for the higher wel- 
fare of his fellows, are well known. 

The list of Mr. Morgan's benefactions to various good causes 
is a long and impressive one. He gave, in 1897, one milUon 
dollars to the Society of the Lying-in Hospital of the city of 
New York for a new budding. He gave five hundred thousand 
dollars to the Auchmuty Industrial School ; three hundred and 
sixty thousand dollars to St. George's Protestant Episcopal 
Chui'ch, New York, for its memorial parish house ; a large sum, 
the exact amount of which has not been revealed, to the new 
Protestant Episcopal Cathedral in New York ; a fine collection 
of gems to the American Museum of Natiu'al History ; twenty- 
five thousand dollars for the mortgage on the Protestant Episco- 
pal Church of the Redeemer in New York; a fine chapel at 
Highland Falls, New York, where he makes his summer home ; 
ten thousand dollars to the public hbrary at Holyoke, Massa- 
chusetts ; and twenty-five thousand dollars for the electric light- 
ing of St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England. 

Mr. Morgan is a member of the Metropolitan, Union League, 
Century, Union, Knickerbocker, Tuxedo, Riding, Racquet, 
Lawyers', Whist, Players', New York Yacht, Seawanhaka-Corin- 
thian Yacht, and other clubs of New York, and of others else- 
where in this and other countries. 



F 



FRANKLIN MURPHY 

, .RANKLIN MURPHY, one of the foremost manufacturers of 
the city of Newark and for many years a leader of the Repuh- 
lican party in the State of New Jersey, comes of colonial stock. 
His great-gi'eat-grandfather, Rohert Miu-phy, came to this coun- 
try in 1756, and settled in Connecticut. That ancestor had a 
son, Robert Mm^^hy, Jr., who lived in Bergen County, New 
Jersey, and served in the American army in the War of the 
Revolution. Robert Murphy, Jr., married Hannah Doaue, and 
they had a son, Wilham Murphy, who was a soldier in the War 
of 1812. The last-named had a son named William Hayes 
Murphy, who married Elizabeth Hagar, and lived in Jersey 
City, New Jersey. 

Franklin Murphy, son of this couple, was born in Jersey City 
on January 3, 1816. When he was ten years old the family 
removed to Newark, and he was educated in the well-known 
Newark Academy. He left school in Jidy, 1862, to enhst in the 
Thirteenth Regiment, New Jersey Volunteers, and was in active 
service until the close of the war, partly in the Army of the 
Potomac and partly in the West under General Sherman. At 
the close of the war he was honorably mustered out with the 
rank of first lieutenant. He had been at Antietam, Chancellors- 
ville, and Gettysburg, and "from Atlanta to the sea." 

Mr. Murphy, though still two years short of his majority, 
founded, in 1865, the firm of Murphy & Co., varnish manu- 
facturers, in Newark. His enterprise was attended with much 
success. A factoiy was established, which has been repeatedly 
increased in size and productiveness, and the business was pushed 
by the enterprise of Mr. Murphy and his associates, until now 
" Miu'phy varnishes " are known the world over. In 1891 the 

:i49 



250 FRANKLIN MURPHY 

company was incorporated as the Murphy Varnish Company, 
and Mr. Murphy has since that time remained its president. A 
just and appreciative employer, Mr. Murphy has always heen 
deeply interested in the welfare of his workmen and of labor in 
general, and has for many years been a faithful advocate of that 
policy which aims to enable American employers to pay the 
highest wages in the world and to raise American industriahsm 
to the highest possible plane. 

Mr. Mm-phy has held various public offices, including member- 
ship in the Common Council of Newark and in the Legislatm-e 
of New Jersey, and as Park Commissioner to lay out and com- 
plete the parks of Essex County. He has served for some years 
as chairman of the Republican State Committee of New Jersey, 
and in that place has contributed largely to the growth of the 
party and its splendid success at the polls in recent years. He 
was appointed by President McKinley a commissioner to the 
Paris Universal Exposition of 1000. In November, 1901, he 
was elected Grovernor of New Jersey for a term of two years, 
and entered upon that office at the beginning of 1902. 

He has been called upon to assume many responsibilities in 
connection with public institutions, banks, societies, etc., such 
as fall to the lot of a man of integrity, ability, and wealth, and 
has cUscharged his multifarious duties in a manner which has 
commanded the unqualified approval of the pubhc. 

Mr. Murphy is a member of the Union League, the Century, 
and the South Side Sportsmen's clubs of New York, the Union 
League Club of Chicago, the Loyal Legion, the Sons of the 
American Revolution, and the Essex and the Essex County 
Coimtry clubs of Newark. He was chosen secretary -general of 
the Sons of the American Revolution from 1893 to 1897, vice- 
president-general in 1898, and president-general in 1899. 

Mr. Mmi^hy was manned in Newark, in 1868, to Miss Janet 
Colwell. They have three children : Frankhn Murphy, Jr., 
Helen M. Mm-phy, and John A. Murphy, 



p^«i^ p 




^iv-v.vv'v^ *y\a,^w^cC^ v>'-i ^ 



SAMUEL NEWHOUSE 



SAMUEL NEWHOUSE, the brilliant and successM mining 
operator, was born in New York city, October 14, 1853. 
He received bis general education in the public schools of 
Philadelphia, and in 1870 began the study of law. For this 
profession he showed much aptitude, and so commanded pubhc 
confidence that in the year 1873 he became Com-t Clerk of all 
the courts of Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. This office he 
filled satisfactorily until his resignation in 1879, which step he 
took in order to engage in the business with which he has since 
been so successfully identified. 

Mr. Newhouse had long been anxious to try his fortunes in 
the mining regions of the West, where so many before him had 
acquired gi'eat wealth, and in May, 1880, he left Pennsylvania 
and took up his residence in Leadville, Colorado, which was at 
that time one of the most important mining centers. For six 
years he followed vnth profit the business of freighting, at the 
same time becoming interested in various mining prospects. In 
this way, while at the same time amassing a handsome fortune, 
he made himself thoroughly conversant with all affau-s relating 
to mines and ores, and at length, having mastered all details of 
the business, began to devote his entire time to promoting large 
companies in London and New York city. 

In this line of work Mr. Newhouse continued and has been 
uniformly successful. The number and importance of his enter- 
prises at the present time are extraordinary, considering that he 
has yet hardly passed middle life, and has been engaged in min- 
ing operations for only a comparatively short time. 

The Newhouse Tunnel, of which noteworthy enterprise he was 
the projector and is managing du'ector, is located at Idaho 



251 



252 SAMUEL NEWHOUSE 

Springs, Colorado. It is already completed for a distance of 
something more than one and one half miles, but is intended to 
run five miles through Seaton Mountain. It will drain over two 
thousand mining properties, and the ores from all those mines 
^dll be transported through the tunnel. 

Mr. Newhouse is president and managing director of the Utah 
Consolidated Gold Mines, Limited, and of the Boston Car Copper 
& Grold Mining Company, Limited; managing director of the 
Newhouse Tunnel Company, Limited; president of the Ajax 
Mining Company of Salt Lake City, and of the Denver, Lake- 
wood & Golden Railway Company ; and he is also interested 
as ovmer in the Iron Mask Mines of Red Cliff, Colorado, and 
the Revenue Mines of Montana, in addition to a ninnber of 
other valualile or promising properties. It is fitting to add, as 
one of the prime causes of his success, that his upright and 
truthful character has given his name an authority and com- 
mended him to confidence wherever he is known. 

Mr. Newhouse was manned, January 1, 1883, to Miss Ida H. 
Stringley of Vii'ginia. A man occupied ^\ath so many and such 
varying interests has necessarily limited time for outside pur- 
suits. Mr. Newhouse has therefore enjoyed little opportunity 
to engage actively in political affairs, and his tastes have never 
led him to identify himself with clubs, or to seek to become a 
conspicuous figure in any social or public organizations. He is 
first a business man, and then a domestic man, and in his home 
life fijids all desired diversion and rest from his multifarious 
business cares. 






'iA^fd c^^Ai-^ 




JACOB VAN YECHTEN OLCOTT 



'T^HE family of Oleott, which has long been settled iu the 
J- United States, is of English origin, and was introduced to 
this country at an early date by way of the New England colo- 
nies. The first member of it in America was one of the founders 
of the city of Hartford, Connecticut, and his descendants have 
spread thence to nearly all parts of the United States. In the 
last generation one of them, John N. Oleott, was a well-known 
commission merchant in New York city. 

The family of Knox is, as might be assumed from the name, 
of Scottish origin. Its original seat was iu the south of Scot- 
land, whence it removed to the north of Ireland, and thence to 
the United States, being then classed as Scotch Irish. In this 
country the pioneer memljer of the branch of the family now 
under consideration was Dr. Samuel Knox, a physician. He 
came to America at about the close of the Revolutionary War, 
and, like so many of his compatriots, settled in Pennsylvania. 
His son was that Rev. Dr. John Knox who rose to eminence as 
a theologian and preacher, and was for many years pastor of the 
Collegiate Dutch Church in New York. 

A daughter of the Rev. Dr. Knox, named Euphemia Helen 
Knox, became the wife of John N. Oleott, the commission mer- 
chant already mentioned, and on May 17, 1856, at their home in 
New York, liore him a son, to wliom the name of Jacob Van 
Vechten Oleott was given. The boy was sent in diie time to 
old Public School No. 35, of which Thomas Hanks was then 
principal, and in which he acquu^ed an excellent primary educa- 
tion and preparation for college. He thence went to the CoUege 
of the City of New York, and finally to the Law School of 

253 





i/^-^ 



JAMES EDWARDS PEPPER 



XirmSKY and water are commonly regarded as incompati- 

▼ T bles. The lover of the former resents the admixture, or at 
least the too great admixture, of the latter therewith, while the 
foe of whisky sounds the praises of pure water as a bever- 
age superior to any product of the still. Yet, strange to say, the 
word " whisky " means " water " — simply that and nothing more. 
In the old Gaelic it bore the form of " uisge," pronounced much 
as in its present Anglicized form, and meaning nothing but 
water. But when the Gael learned to distil the essence of grain 
into a stimulating drink, he called it " uisgebeatha," or " water 
of life," whence the modern corruption " usquebaugh." A close 
parallel will be observed between the Gael's " uisgebeatha" and 
the Gallic '' eau-de-vie." 

It would be a difficult task to determine, even approximately, 
when and where and by whom whisky was invented. The name, 
however, unmistakably indicates a Gaehe origin, as does also the 
status of the industry to-day, so far as the Old World is concerned. 
There are nearly a hundred and fifty whisky distilleries in Scot- 
land, with a yearly production of nearly twenty-five million gal- 
lons, and Ireland has some forty, with fourteen million gallons, 
while England has less than a dozen, with from ten to twelve 
million gallons. 

These figures seem potty, however, when contrasted with those 
of the distilling trade in the United States. The latter are sub- 
ject to extraordinary fluctuations, but for many years those rep- 
resenting the output of whisky have ranged from forty-five to 
sixty million gallons, while the total of distilled spirits has run 
far above one hundred million gallons. 

In this industry Kentucky has long enjoyed preeminence. 



256 JAMES EDWARDS PEPPER 

That remarkable State is noted, accordiug to common remark, 
for tlie beauty of its women, the speed of its horses, and the 
pm-ity of its whisky. True, the fluctuations ah-eady noted are 
perhaps more marked there than in other States. In five years 
the output of Kentucky distilleries varied from less than seven 
million to more than forty-five million gallons. For more than 
a century, however, Kentucky has maintained a leading rank as 
a whisky-producing State, and distilling has stood among its 
foremost industries. 

Among the famous distilleries of Kentucky, probably the best 
known, and certainly the oldest, is the Pepper Distillery, where 
is produced the well-known Pepper brand of whisky. This 
institution was founded as long ago as in 1780, the first distillery 
in the entire territory now comprised in the State of Kentucky. 
Its founder was Ehjah Pepper, a member of a well-known family 
of Culpeper County, Virginia. When he moved from the Old 
Dominion to the " Dark and Bloody Ground," Kentucky was 
merely — so far as it was surveyed and occiipied at all — an 
appanage or perhaps a county of Virginia. Mr. Pepper remained, 
therefore, a Virginian in his new home. In time, however, Ken- 
tucky was erected into an independent State, and then the Pepper 
family became as tridy Kentuckians as they formerly had been 
Virginians. 

Elijah Pepper was succeeded, as the head of the great distil- 
ling business which he built up, by his son. General 0. Pepper, 
The latter married Miss Annette Edwards, and to them the sub- 
ject of this sketch, James Edwards Pepper, was bom at their 
home in Woodford County, Kentucky, on May 18, 1850. He 
was theii' eldest son. 

It was the custom, at that time, among the gi-eat distilhng 
houses of Kentucky, for the eldest son of the family to enter the 
distillery at the age of fifteen years or thereabout, and gi'ow up 
with the business, with a view of succeeding to the headship of 
it. Such had been General Pepper's experience, and such he 
decided should be that of his son. The latter was accordingly 
sent to school at Frankfort and thoroughly educated, especially 
along the practical lines hkely to be of service to him in con- 
ducting the ancestral business. Then, at the age of fifteen years, 
he left school and entered the distillery, where he learned every 



JAMES EDWARDS PEPPER 257 

detail of the industry. From that time to the present he has 
been continuously engaged in the distilling business, and has 
materially added to the fame of the Pepper distilleries and the 
wliisky which they produce. At the present day there is 
probably no better known whisky made in the United States 
than his. 

Colonel Pepper is now the president of the corj^oration of 
James E. Pepper & Co., proprietors of the Pepper Distillery and 
also of the Henry Clay Pm-e Rye Distillery. The magnitude of 
these concerns has been sufficient to monopolize the bulk of his 
business attention, and he has not ideutilied himself with other 
corporations. Neither has he taken an especially prominent part 
in political affairs, holding and seeking no public office. 

The one other work in which he is engaged, in addition to 
distilhng, is one equally characteristic of Kentuckians. It is the 
breeding of thoroughbred horses. Colonel Pepper has a fine 
stock-farm, Meadowthorpe, near Lexington, Kentucky, in the 
heart of the famous blue-grass region, and there he keejjs a high 
class of blooded horses, some of which have won great fame on 
the turf. He takes miich pleasure in his horses, and conducts 
the farm as much for love of fine stock as for profit, though of 
com'se the latter element is not lacking. 

Colonel Pepper is a frequent visitor to New York city, and is 
well known and cordially welcomed there. He is a member of 
the Manhattan and New York clubs in New York city, and 
of the Lexington Union Club of Lexington, Kentucky. Of the 
latter he was president for two terms. 

Having identified himself conspicuously with two of the three 
great products of Kentucky, it was only natural that Colonel 
Pepper should turn his attention to the third. This he did in 
1890, when he married Miss Ella Offutt of Shelby County, 
Kentucky. 



®^ 




LAFAYETTE EDWARD PIKE 



LAFAYETTE E. PIKE, the founder and head of a firm of 
J bankers and brokers well loiowu in all parts of the United 
States and Canada through its wide-spread business and its 
l)ranch offices in man,y cities, is a native of the State with which 
he has all his life been especially identified and in which he still 
resides. He was l)orn at (^heshire, Connecticut, on January 4, 
1860, and received a good education at the Morris Academy in 
Litchfield County in the same State. 

During his boyhood, imtil he was seventeen years of age, he 
Avorked on a farm in Litchfield County in the intervals of his 
schooling. Or perhaps it would Ije more correct to say he at- 
tended school in the time which could be spared from farm 
work. His remuneration for his lal)or was nothing more than 
his board and clothing. At the age of seventeen, however, he 
went to Hartford, Connecticut, and soon became engaged in the 
management of theatricals and concert companies "on the 
road." Among the "attractions" of which he at times had the 
management were the Booth-Barrett dramatic company, Theo- 
dore Thomas's orchestra, Gilmore's band, and the Yale Uni- 
versity Glee Club. 

After some years of more or less successful operations as an 
amusement manager, Mr. Pike transferred his ambitious activi- 
ties to the field of life insurance. He became a general agent at 
Hartford for the New York Life Insurance Company, one of 
the foremost concerns in the world, and remained in its ser\dce 
eight years. 

His jjresent business was founded aliout eleven years ago, 
when he opened a Ijroker's office at Hartford, Connecticut, and 

258 





'O 



LAFAYETTE EDWAKD PIKE 259 

organized the firm of L. E. Pike & Co. Tlie venture quickly 
proved profitable, and from time to time branch offices were 
established elsewhere. Among the cities in which the firm is 
thus represented are New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, 
Baltimore, Washington, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Springfield 
(Massachusetts), Hartford (Connecticut), and Montreal and 
Toronto in Canada. 

In addition to the wide-spread operations of his firm, Mr. 
Pike is interested in numerous other corporations and enter- 
prises. Among these are the Diamond, Central, Eastern Star, 
and Eastern Consolidated Oil companies, several electric rail- 
road companies, and some Southern jolantation companies. He 
is also interested in various issues of railroad and municipal 
bonds. 

Mr. Pike continues to make his home in the city of Hart- 
ford, whei'e his business career began. He lives with his wife 
and son at No. 1 Vine Street, in a residence which was for- 
merly owned by the Hon. James G. Patterson, who was presi- 
dent of the Travellers' Insurance Company, but who is now 
deceased. The house is a fine one, and is surrounded by amj)le 
grounds richly adorned with trees and shrubs. The place has 
a frontage of more than one thousand feet on Albany Avenue 
and more than eight hmidred feet on Vine Street, and is con- 
sidered one of the handsomest in Hartford. 

Mr. Pike was married at Hartford, in 1887, to Miss Isa Ma- 
belle Greyer. They have one child, a son, named William Car- 
lisle Pike, now thirteen years of age. 




ROBERT PITCAIRN 

ROBERT PITCAIRN of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, the son of 
John and Agnes Pitcairn, is of Scottish origin, having been 
born at Johnstone, near Paisley, on May 6, 1836. The family 
came to this country in 1846, and settled at Pittsburg. Robert 
had already attended school, and he pursued his studies fm*ther 
in Pittsburg. Then he had to go to work in a store ; but he attended 
a night-school for some time. He was twelve years old when he 
became a messenger-boy in the Pittsburg office of the xltlantic 
& Ohio Telegraph Company. He got the place through the 
efforts of his young friend Andrew Carnegie, who then held a 
similar place. He became assistant opei'ator and repair man at 
Steubenville, Ohio, operator in the Pittsburg office, and then, in 
1853, operator and assistant ticket agent at Moiuitain House, 
Duncansville, Pennsylvania, thus entering the employ of the 
Pennsylvania Raih'oad. 

That railroad was completed over the Alleghany Mountains in 
February, 1854, and Mr. Pitcairn was transferred to the oflice of 
the general supei'intendent at Altoona. At that time he formed 
the ambition of retui-ning to Pittsburg as superintendent of the 
Pittsburg division of the road. At Altoona he filled various places, 
sometimes serving as acting division superintendent, until 1S61, 
when he was sent to the western division of the company's Pitts- 
biu'g. Fort Wayne and Chicago system, where he spent a year. 
Then J. Edgar Thompson, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, 
appointed him to be superintendent of the Middle di\dsiou of the 
road, from Conemaugh to Mifilin. Soon a reorganization of the 
staff was effected, and he was made superintendent of transporta- 
tion — a new office, created expressly for him. In that place he 
organized the systems of car records, car mileage, and other 

2(i0 




Gcods^eea 3i-o:hcrs. 'Puxishsrs Ckii\:.. 




>^- 



"^ 



ROBERT PITCAIRN 261 

important depai-tments of administration. Dui-ing the Civil 
War he had an enormous amount of work in the transportation 
of troops and siipplies, and in addition to his regular duties he 
had for some time charge of the Middle and Pittshurg divisions 
of the road, and of -the Cumberland Valley hne from Harrisbiu-g 
to Hagerstown. Finally, at the close of the war in 1865, his early 
ambition was realized. He was made superintendent of the Pitts- 
l)urg di%-ision of the Pennsylvania Railroad, at the city which had 
been his first American home. Ten years later his responsibilities 
were enlarged materially by his adthtional apijointment as general 
agent of the road, and down to the present time he has continued 
to discharge the duties of both offices. 

Mr. Pitcairn has long been identified with many of the most 
important interests of the western part of Pennsylvania. For a 
time he was a leader among the promoters of petroleum interests, 
though never in a speculative way. He is a shareholder and 
director of many of the most solid business corporations not only 
of Pittslim-g but of the country. Among them are the Fidelity & 
Trust Company, the Citizens' National Bank of Pittsbvu'g, the First 
National Bank of CTreensbiu'g, the American Surety Company of 
New York, of which latter he is resident vice-president in Pitts- 
burg, the Philadelphia National Gas Company, of which he is 
vice-president, and the Westiughouse Air-l^rake Company, of 
which he is also vice-president. He was one of the organizers 
of the company first formed to mauufacttu'e the au'-brake. 

Mr. Pitcairn has always been a strong Republican, and served 
as the secretary of the first convention of that party ever held in 
Blair County, Pennsylvania. He has long been a memlier of the 
Order of Free Masons, and is a passed grand commander of the 
Order of Knights Templar. He is a director of the great public 
library founded in Pittsburg by Andrew Carnegie, and a director 
of the West Pennsylvania Exposition Society. While stationed 
at Altoona, on July 26, 1856, Mr. Pitcairn was married to Miss 
Elizabeth E. Rigg, a daughter of John Rigg of Altoona. Four 
children have resulted from this xmion, namely : Mrs. Omar S. 
Decker, Mrs. Charles L. Taylor, Miss Susan Blanche Pitcau'n, and 
Robert Pitcairn, Jr. 



ANDREW WOODBURY PRESTON 



ANDREW WOODBURY PRESTON, one of the foremost 
J-Jl. figures in tbe foreign fruit trade of the United States, is of 
New England nativity, and of Enghsh ancestry on both the pa- 
ternal and maternal sides of the honse. Three generations back 
his forefathers were English folk. They were what were then 
termed " well-to-do " people, of prospei'ous and substantial stand- 
ing in worldly matters and of high esteem in the community to 
which they belonged. They were also of particularly sturdy 
physical frame and long life. The ages of Mr. Pi-eston's four 
grandparents at then- deaths ranged from eighty-seven to ninety- 
nine years. In thi; last generation Benjamin Preston was a 
practical and successful farmer, living at Beverly Farms, not far 
from Boston, Massachusetts. He niaiTied Sarah L. Poland, who 
bore him the subject of the present sketch. 

Andrew Woodbury Preston was born at Beverly Farms, 
Massachusetts, on Jime 29, 1846, and was educated at the excel- 
lent grammar school at that place. Until he was twenty years 
old he hved on his father's farm and was accustomed to all 
departments of its work. He was, however, too near the great 
centers of industry and commerce not to receive fi'om them an 
inspiration to engage in some other occupation than that which 
his father had followed. 

His first ventm-e on leaving the farm was in the shoe trade, 
of which at that time that part of Massachusetts had well-nigh 
a monopoly. He became in 1866, at the age of twenty years, 
junior partner in the firm of WiUiams & Preston, manufacturers 
of women's shoes. In that business he prospered, and acquired 
much valuable experience m practical business methods. After 
two years, however, he sold out his interest in the firm to his 



:i62 



■A 








ANDREW WOODBURY PRESTON 263 

partner, Mr. Williams, and retired from manufactui'ing for a more 
purely commercial pursuit. 

Mr. Preston's next veutiu-e was in the wholesale fruit trade, 
in the city of Boston, where that trade has reached enormous 
proportions. In that he was successful, and he continued in it 
without thought of further change. In time he rose to com- 
manding rank among his business associates, and in 1888 was 
one of the foremost in organizing the Boston Fruit Company. 
Of that great corporation he became general manager. That 
was, however, only a stepping-stone to a much greater organiza- 
tion. In 1899 Mr. Preston took a leading part in the organiza- 
tion of the United Fi*uit Company. This giant corporation 
combines within itself practically the entire tropical fruit trade 
of the United States, including both the growing of fruits in 
tropical countries and the importation of them into the United 
States and shipment of them to other lands. 

Mr. Preston is president of the United Fruit Company, with 
headquarters in Boston ; vice-president of the Mercantile Trust 
Company of Boston ; and president of the Fruit Despatch Com- 
pany of New York. The direction of these great enterprises has 
proved sufficient to consume his time and attention, and he has 
accordingly held and sought no political office. 

His social connections include membership in the Exchange 
Club of Boston, the New York Club of New York, the New 
Algonquin Club of Boston, the Eastern Yacht Club, the Massa- 
chusetts Consistory, S. P. R. S., and the Boston Commandery, 
Knights Templar. 

Mr. Preston was married on August 5, 1869, at Weymouth, 
Massachusetts, his bride being Miss Frances E. Gutterson. 
Their one sm-viving child is a daughter. Miss Bessie W. Preston. 




MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY 

MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY, who was born at Dillsburg, 
York County, Pennsylvania, on September 30, 1833, is the 
son of a Presbytei'ian preacher, and the namesake of General 
Matthew Stanley of Brandywine Manor. In early boyhood he 
was taken by his father to Pittsburg, and afterward to Beaver 
County, with which he has ever since been identified. He 
entered Jefferson College, in Washington County, and at the age 
of seventeen was graduated with honors. He next began the 
study of law with Judge Steri-ett at Pittsburg, but soon sus- 
pended that work to make a trip through the South. Dissuaded 
by his mother from a plan to start an antislavery paper in 
Louisiana, he settled in Texas, for a time, as a school-teacher and 
lecturer. His career there was not prolonged, and on returning 
home he resumed his law studies, and in 1854 was admitted to 
the bar. The next year he was elected Prothonotary of Beaver 
County, and thereafter he was reelected twice. 

At the outbreak of the Civil War Mr. Quay enhsted in the 
Tenth Pennsylvania Reserves. He was soon made a first lieu- 
tenant, and then assistant commissary-general, with the rank 
of lieutenant-colonel. Wlien the military staff of the Grovernor 
was abolished. Governor Ciu'tin made him his private secretary. 
A year later he was appointed colonel of the One Hundred 
and Thirty -fourth Pennsylvania Infantry, of which he took com- 
mand in August, 1862. Serious illness compelled him to resign 
his commission a few days before the battle of Fredericksburg, 
but he took part in that battle as a vokmteer, was in the front 
rank at Marye's Heights, and received from the War Department 
the Congressional medal for personal valor. He next became 
the Mihtary Agent of Pennsylvania at Washington, and then 

264 





/7^^, ^1 



MATTHEW STANLEY QUAY 265 

Military Secretary to the Governor. In 1864 he was elected to 
the Legislature from Beaver Connty, and was several times 
reelected. 

Mr. Quay became a political leader of State prominence as 
early as 1867. In that year Governor Curtin, Simon Cameron, 
Thaddeus Stevens, and several other prominent men were can- 
didates for the United States Senatorship. Mr. Quay was put 
forward by the Curtin contingent for the Speakership of the 
House. He was defeated, and so was Governor Curtin. In 
1869 Mr. Quay began the pubhcatiou of the " Beaver Radical," 
which soon l)eeame an important political newspaper. He cham- 
pioned the cancUdacy of General Hartranft for Governor so vigor- 
ously as to elect him against what had seemed hopeless odds, 
and it was deemed a fitting reward of his public services that he 
was then appointed Secretary of State of Pennsylvania. That 
office he held from 1873 to 1878, then was Recorder of the city of 
Philadelphia for a short term, and then again Secretary of State. 
One of the most striking acts of his career came in 1885, when, 
in answer to an organized attempt to di'ive him out of politics, 
he announced himself a candidate for the office of State Trea- 
surer. The result was his election by nearly fifty thousand 
majority. After that his leadership was unchallenged. In 
1887 he was elected United States Senator, and he was reelected 
in 1893. At the end of his second term the Legislature failed 
to elect a successor, and he was reappointed by the Governor, 
but on technical grounds the Senate declared the apjiointment 
mvalid and the seat was left temporarily vacant. He was re- 
elected by the Legislatui-e, and resumed his seat in the Senate in 
January, 1901. 

Senator Quay has long been Pennsylvania's member of the 
Republican National Committee, and in 1888-92 was chah'man 
thereof. At the National Republican Convention of 1896 he 
received the entire vote of Pennsylvania, and a number of votes 
from other States, for the Presidential nomination. 



ANTON ADOLPH RAYEN 

THE subject of the present sketch might well claim to be 
the dean of cosmopolitanism in the most cosmopolitan of 
cities. He is of mingled English and Dutch parentage, was born 
in a Dutch colony in America, spent much of his early life in a 
Danish colony, and finally settled in New York. Moreover, his 
father, who was of English ancestry, was a merchant in the 
Spanish-American Repubhc of Venezuela, while his mother came 
of ancestors who came from Holland to New York State and 
thence removed to Cm*a<j?ao, West Indies, where she herself was 
born. 

Anton Adolpli Raven, son of John R. Raven and Petronella 
(Hutchiugs) Raven, was born on September 30, 1833, at Cm'agao, 
in the Dutch West Indies. His early years, until he was seven- 
teen, were spent in the Danish West Indies, where he received 
his education. Then he came to the United States to enter 
business life. 

It was on January 4, 1852, that he entered the service of the 
Atlantic Mutual Insm-ance Company of New York city, and he 
has remained in that service, without interruption, down to the 
present time. He has, of course, enjoyed promotion from time 
to time, and thus has passed from the lowest i-ank to the highest. 
His successive steps may be recapitulated as follows : 

In 1852 he began as a clei-k; in 1865 he was appointed an 
underwriter; in 1874 he was appointed to be fourth \nce-president 
of the company ; in 1876 he became third vice-president ; in 1886 
he was made second vice-president. These were all appointive 
offices, but elective offices were near at hand. In 1895 he was 
elected vice-president of the company ; and two years later, in 
1897, he was elected president, which office he continues to hold. 

266 





yyV(AAMA\^ 



ANTON ADOLPH BAVEN 267 

In SO consistent and persistent a career, Mr. Raven has foimd 
neither time nor incUnation to seek pohtical preferment, and he 
has accordingly held no political office. His business interests 
have, however, extended outside of the company with which he 
has so long been identified, and he is now a director of the 
Atlantic Trust Company, the Home Life Insurance Company, 
and the Phoenix National Bank of New York. 

]Mi\ Raven is a member of the Montauk Club of Brooklyn, 
New York, the American Museum of Natural History, and the 
Metropolitan Museum of Ai-t. He is a member and vice-presi- 
dent of the Society for Improving the Condition of the Poor in 
Brookljai, and a member and recording secretary of the Ameri- 
can Geographical Society. 

He was married in New York, in 1860, to Miss Grertrude Oat- 
man, who has borne hun four childi'en. These are as follows : 
Wilham Oatman Raven ; Carohne Elizabeth MacLean, widow of 
the late Peter A. MacLean ; Edith Raven ; and John Howard 
Raven, professor of Hebrew and Old Testament exegesis in the 
Theological Seminary at New Brunswick, New Jersey. 




NORMAN BRUCE REAM 

THE soldier, merchant, and financier who now stands among 
the foremost men of Chicago, Norman Bruce Ream, comes 
of fine old colonial ancestry, his great-grandfather, John Ream, 
having heen a gallant soldier in the Revolution, and other mem- 
bers of the family having conspicuously served their country 
in peace and in war. His father's people originally came from 
Frankfort in (Tcrmany about two hundred years ago, while liis 
mother's family, named King, was of English and Scottish origin. 
He was born on November 5, 18-14, the son of Levi and Highly 
(King) Ream, on a farm in the great valley of Somerset County, 
Pennsylvania. He was educated chiefly in the common schools 
of his native place until he was fourteen years old, when he 
began teaching school and at the same tune pursuing his own 
studies at home. The outbreak of the Civil War changed, how- 
ever, the tenor of his life. In September, 1861, he enhsted in 
the Eighty-fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, went to the front, and 
was engaged in active servdce until near the end of the war, when, 
having been promoted for gallantry to be lieutenant, he was 
honorably discharged on account of wounds received in battle 
under Grant in the great Virginia campaign. 

After the war Mr. Ream turned his attention to business. 
First, however, he rounded out his education with a commercial 
course in a school at Pittslmrg, Pennsylvania. Thereafter he 
served as a clerk in a country store at Harnedsville, Pennsyl- 
vania, and in another at Princeton, Illinois. Of the latter he 
soon became part owner. In the fall of 1867 he went to Osce- 
ola, Iowa, and engaged in farming and dealing in grain, live 
stock, and agricultural implements. Bad seasons and bad debts 



NORMAN BRUCE REAM 269 

caused his failure, and in 1871 be went to Chicago to try his 
fortune in a new direction. He engaged in the hve-stock com- 
mission business, and was from the first successful. Within 
three years he was enabled to pay in full with ten per cent, 
interest all the debts he bad left behind him in Iowa. He added 
grain to live stock in his deahngs, and engaged in not a few 
speculations of considerable magnitude. In 1888 he retired from 
the Chicago Board of Trade, of which he had long been a lead- 
ing member, and was at that time rated as a man of great wealth 
and as one of the representative business men of the Western 
metropolis. 

Retu'ement from the Board of Trade did not, however, mean 
withdrawal from active Imsiness life. Mr. Ream began invest- 
ing his capital in l>anking, railroad, and other substantial enter- 
prises, to which also he devoted his earnest personal attention. 
He purchased and improved much real estate in Chicago, the 
Rookery Building being one of the proi^erties in which he was 
interested. He became much concerned in street railroads and 
electric-lighting systems in Toledo, Ohio, and elsewhere. Many 
years ago he became a director of the Ilhnois Central Railway, 
and of the Fh'st National Bank of Chicago, two of the foremost 
financial concerns of the West. The Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road also attracted his attention. He became a director of it, 
and played a prominent part in its reorganization. Still another 
of his railroads was the Colorado Southern, which he helped to 
reorganize. He is also a director of the Erie and of some otber 
raih-oads, of the Pullman Company, of the great United States 
Steel Corporation, and of the Metropolitan Trust Company of 
New York, and of various other corporations. At the present 
time, therefore, Mr. Ream is not only one of the foremost busi- 
ness men of Chicago, but also a financier of national prominence 
and influence. Throughout his long and arduous career, in 
which he has participated in many a business battle, he has 
kept his credit and his honor unstained, and his name free from 
even the shadow of reproach. 

Mr. Ream has taken no part in political affairs beyond those 
pertaining to the private citizen. As a voter he is independent, 
though generaUy alining himself with the Republican party. 

He is a member of many social organizations, in which his 



270 NOKMAN BBUCE REAM 

temperament makes him as popular as his business standing 
makes him iuflnential. Among them are the Chicago, Calumet, 
Union League, and Washington Park clubs of Chicago, and the 
Union and Metropolitan clubs of New York city. His fondness 
for out-of-door sports has led to his joining a number of fishing 
and hunting clubs. 

Mr. Ream was mamed, at Madison, New York, on February 
19, 1876, to Miss Caroline Putnam, daughter of Dr. John Put- 
nam of that place. The six children of Mr. and Mrs. Ream are 
Marion Buckingham, Francis Mott, Norman P., Robert C, 
Edward K., and Louis M. Ream. 




JAMES HAY REED 



rpHE "liberty, equality, fraternity" of the Repviblic are exem- 
J- plified iu business and professional life as well as in social 
matters or in political activities. There are in the United States 
no exclusive professional or lousiness castes or classes. There is 
no reproach of being "in trade," nor is there any especial line of 
demarcation between mercantile pursuits and the practice of the 
so-called learned professions. The sons of j^rofessional men 
engage in business, and the sons of business men enter the 
learned professions, with the utmost freedom and readiness. 
More than that, many men pass from trade to profession, or 
from profession to trade, according to their convenience or 
advantage, or even pui'sue profession and business at the same 
time. In the last generation, for e:iample. Dr. Joseph A. Reed 
was one of the foremost members of the medical profession, 
being for many years superintendent of the Western Pennsyl- 
vania Hospital for the Insane. His son, James Hay Reed, who 
was born to him and his wife, Eliza J. Reed (born Hay), on 
September 10, 1853, first entered the legal profession, but after- 
ward became identified with great industrial enterprises. 

James Hay Reed was educated at the Western University of 
Pennsylvania, and was gi'aduated from it in June, 1872. He 
then entered upon the study of the law, and three years later 
was admitted to practice at the bar in Allegheny Coimty, Penn- 
sylvania. In 1877 he formed a partnership with P. C Knox, 
under the name of Knox & Reed, and piu-sued thereafter a 
successful career as a lawyer in general practice. His legal 
career was crowned by his appointment as United States District 
Judge for Western Pennsylvania, in February, 1891. Just a year 



272 JAMES HAY REED 

later he resigned that place, and reentered his former firm in 
order to be free for legal practice and business enterprises. 

His business career may be briefly recapitulated as foUows : 
From February, 1892, to June, 1896, vice-president of the Pitts- 
burg & Lake Erie Railroad Company, a part of the Vanderbilt 
system. Director of that road from January, 1890, to January, 
1897. Since June, 1896, president and director of the Pittsburg, 
Bessemer & Lake Erie Railroad Company, and the Union Rail- 
road Company, of the Carnegie system. Since June, 1898, 
president and du-ector of the Consolidated Gas Company of 
Pittsburg. Since March, 1899, president and du'ector of the 
Philadelphia Company, the principal fuel-gas company of Pitts- 
bui'g, and vice-president and director of the Allegheny County 
Electric Light Company and United Traction Company of 
Pittsburg. From May, 1892, to May, 1898, director of the Lake 
Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Comjmny of the Vander- 
bilt system. He is also now a director of the Fai-mers' Deposit 
National Bank and Fidelity Title and Trust Company of Pitts- 
burg, and a manager of the Western Pennsylvania HosjDital for 
the Insane, and of the Pittsburg Hospital for Children ; and a 
trustee of the Western University of Pennsylvania, the Shady- 
side Academy, and the Shadyside Presbyterian Church of 
Pittsburg. 

In pohtics Mr. Reed is a Republican, and he has always taken 
an active and efficient interest in the promotion of that party's 
welfare. He is a member of the Union League, Manhattan, and 
Transportation clubs of New York, the Duquesne, Pittsbm-g, 
and University clubs of Pittsburg, and the Union Club of Cleve- 
land, Ohio. 

Mr. Reed was married, on June 6, 1878, to Miss Kate J. Aiken, 
daughter of David Aiken, Jr., of Pittsburg. They have had four 
chikh-en, as follows : Joseph Hay Reed (now^ deceased), David 
Aiken Reed, James Hay Reed, Jr., and Miss Katherine Reed. 
Then- home is at No. 716 Amberson Avenue, Pittsburg. 



/> 



DANIEL GRAY REID 



THE name aud later career of the subject of the present 
sketch call to niiud one of the most noteworthy develop- 
ments of American industry under the encom-agement of the 
American system of protection to domestic labor. Down to only 
a few years ago the manufacture of tin, that is to say of tin-plate, 
or sheets of steel coated with tin, was utterly unknown to the 
United States. The factories of Great Britain, especially of 
Wales, had a substantial monopoly of it. True, the steel plates 
could be produced in this country as well as anywhere else, and 
the tin for plating them could be brought hither from Singapore 
or elsewhere just as well as it could be taken thence to England. 
All other materials aud appliances could also be secured here, 
and it seemed absurd to say that American workmen could not 
be trained to do the work as well as any others. 

But the industry was not imdertaken. It was so well estab- 
lished in Great Britain, and wages of workingmen were there so 
much lower than here, that there seemed no prospect of profit in 
making tin plates here so long as the foreign-made plates could 
be imported duty free. Whenever a proposition was made to 
impose a duty upon foreign tin plates so as to give the industry 
a chance for development in the United States, the answer was 
made by opponents of protection that it would be futile, for tin 
plates could not, under any circumstances, be manufactured in 
this country. No matter how high the tariff were, it would 
merely increase the cost of the foreign plates without ever bring- 
ing a single American plate upon the market. 

Some Americans, William McKinley among them, thought 
otherwise, and determined to make the experiment. In 1890 a 
tariff law framed by Mr. McKinley was enacted, imposing for 



27;i 



274 DANIEL GRAY REID 

the first time a cousiderable duty upon foreign tiu. It was 
greeted with a howl of denunciation, and the old cry of the 
impossibility of making tin plates in America was renewed. But 
the law was quickly vindicated. The industry was established. 
Year by year it increased by leaps and bounds. To-day it is as 
well established here as is the manufactm-e of steel rails, and 
American tin plates not only supply at a lower rate than before 
the bulk of the domestic demand, but are actually in demand for 
export for foreign countries. 

The man wlio chiefly organized this giant industry in the 
United States is Daniel Gray Reid, a man scarcely yet at middle 
age, though of long business experience. He was born on August 
1, 1858, at Richmond, Indiana, and was educated in the public 
schools of that place. 

Immediately upon finishing his schooling he sought a place in 
the business world, and found it in his native town. He was 
only fifteen years old when, in 1873, he entered the employment 
of the Second National Bank of Richmond. But his thorough 
schooling had fitted him for the work intellectually, and he found 
the work agreeable to his tastes. In such circumstances he nat- 
urally gave his employers good service, and won their favor. In 
turn promotion after promotion came to him, taking him through 
the various grades of service, in all of which he acquitted him- 
self in a highly creditable manner. For no less than twenty-two 
years continuously he served behind the counters of that bank, 
giving up that work in 1895. He is stiU connected with the 
bank, however, as its vice-president. 

We have said that the tariff which started the tin industry in 
America was enacted in 1890. Among other concerns the Ameri- 
can Tin Plate Company was promptly formed, and in 1891 Mr. 
Reid became a director of it, thus identifying himself with the 
new enterprise which was soon to grow to so vast proportions. 
Upon his retu'ement from the bank in 1895, he took active hold 
of the work of the Tin Plate Company, became treasui-er of it, and 
began to " push things." Acting in conjunction with the Moore 
Brothers of Chicago, he soon effected a general consolidation of 
American tin interests in one great corporation, known as the 
American Tin Plate Company. This corporation, witli a capital 
of fifty millions of dollars, had its headquarters in New York. 



DANIEL GRAY KEID 275 

It comprised in 1899 no less than thirty-six works in operation, 
with two hundred and seventy-two mills completed and seven 
more building, a total of two hundred and seventy-nine, besides 
two works with six mills being dismantled. The works were as 
follows : 

^tna Standard Works, Bridgeport, Ohio, 8 mills ; American Works, Elwood, 
Indiana, 20 mills ; Anderson Works, Andei'son, Indiana, 6 mills ; Atlanta Works, 
Atlanta, Indiana, 6 mills; Banfleld Works, Irondale, Ohio, 4 mills; Beaver 
Woi'ks, Lisbon, Ohio, 6 iuills ; Blairsville Works, Blairs\ille, Pennsylvania, 2 
mills; Britton Works, Cleveland, Ohio, 3 mills; Cauonsburg- Works, Canons- 
burg, Pennsylvania, 5 mills; Cincinnati Works, Cincinnati, Ohio, 4 mills; Cres- 
cent Works, Cleveland, Ohio, 6 mills ; Cumlierland Works, Cumberland, Mar}-- 
land, 5 mills ; Ellwood Works, Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, 5 mills ; Falcon 
Works, Niles, Ohio, 6 mills; Great Western Works, Joliet, Illinois, 4 mills; 
Hamilton Works, West Newton, Pennsylvania, 2 mills; Humliert Works, Coa- 
nellsviUe, Pennsylvania, 6 mills; Irondale Works, i\Iiddletown, Indiana, 6 mills; 
Johnstown Works, Johnstown, Pennsylvania, 2 mills ; La Belle Works, Wheel- 
ing, West Virginia, 10 mills ; Laughliu Works, Martins Ferry, Ohio, 14 mills ; 
Marshall Works, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6 mills ; Monongahela Works, 
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 14 mills ; Montpelier Works, Montpelier, Indiana, 6 
mills ; Morewood Works, Gas City, Indiana, 8 mills ; Morton Works, Cambridge, 
Ohio, 6 mills ; National Works, Monessen, Pennsylvania, 8 mills ; New Castle 
Works, New Castle, Pennsylvania, 20 mills; Neshannock Works, New Castle, 
Pennsylvania, 6 mills; Ohio River Works, Remington Station, Pennsylvania, 2 
mills ; Pittsburg Works, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 6 mills ; Pennsylvania 
Works, New Kensington, Pennsylvania, 6 mills; Reeves Works, Canal Dover, 
Ohio, 4 mills; Shenango Works, New Castle, Pennsylvania, 30 mills; Somers 
Works, Brooklyn, New York, 3 mills ; Star Works, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, 8 
mills ; United States Works, Demmler, Pennsylvania, 11 miUs ; and Washington 
Works, Washington, Pennsylvania, 4 mills. 

Mr. Reid was president of this great American Tin Plate Com- 
pany down to the time of its absorption into the United States 
Steel Corporation, of which he is now a director. He is also a 
director of the National Steel Company, and of the Bankers' 
National Bank, of Chicago ; vice-president of the Second National 
Bank; and director of the Union National Bank, Richmond, 
Indiana, and a director of the American Steel Hoop Company. 
He has taken no public part in politics. He is a Mason, and a 
member of the Chicago, Union League, and Calumet clubs of 
Chicago. 



JOHN JACKSON RIKER 

JOHN JACKSON RIKER comes of Dutch stock, originally 
settled in Amsterdam, Holland. In those days the name 
was Van Rycken, and the family was one of wealth, importance, 
and political influence, having been identified with William of 
Nassau in hiKS campaign for Dutch independence. The pioneer 
in America came hither in 1638 and settled in New Amsterdam, 
now New York, In 1642 he was living upon his own premises 
on Heeren Gracht and the old Dutch Road, now known respec- 
tively as Broad Street and Beaver Street. In 1654: he obtained a 
grant of one fourth of the township of Newtown, on Long Island, 
now part of the city of New York. His estate was later gradu- 
ally disposed of for building purposes, but about one hundred 
and thirty acres of it, including the old family homestead and 
bmying-ground, are still in the jjossession of the family. 

In the last generation, John Lawrence Riker, a well-known 
merchant of New York, married May Jackson, and to them was 
born, at Newtown, Long Island, on April 6, 1858, the subject of 
this sketch, John Jackson Riker. He was educated first at a 
boarding-school at Jamaica, Long Island, and then at the Charlier 
Institute in New York. He was prepared to enter college, and 
was strongly urged to do so. He preferred to enter business 
life, and accordingly, in 1876, became an office-boy in the employ 
of his father's firm, J. L. & D. S. Riker, merchants. In 1888 he 
was admitted to partnership in the firm. In 1890 he became 
managing partner. On January 1, 1902, the firm was dissolved, 
being succeeded by a corporation of the same name, of which he 
became president. 

Mr. Riker is justly proud of the reputation he has acquired 
for both business enterprise and fair dealing. The latter is 

276 



-^■ts 





JOHN JACKSON BIKER 277 

emphasized by the fact that every year he makes contracts, 
aggregating milhous of dollars, without ever a price being 
named. Hard work, sagacity, and integrity have brought him 
success and fortune. At the present time he is, in addition to 
his mercantile interests, a director of the Commonwealth Insur- 
ance Company of New York, and an incorporator and director 
of the Mutual Trust Company of Westchester County, at Port 
Chester, New York. 

Mr. Riker's only place in the pubhc civil service was that of 
school trustee in the Twenty-first Ward of New York, which he 
held in the early nineties. He enhsted as a private in the Seventh 
Regiment on May 26, 1878 ; was commissioned as aide-de-camp, 
with rank of first lieutenant, on the staff of Brigadier-General 
Ward, commanding the First Brigade, N. G. S. N. Y., on August 
18, 1879 ; was promoted to be senior aide, with rank of caj^tain, 
on April 1, 1880; was commissioned brigade inspector of rifle 
practice, with rank of major, on May 19, 1880 ; was made bri- 
gade inspector, with rank of major, on October 27, 1882 ; was 
commissioned major of the Twelfth Regiment on January 9, 
1884 ; and resigned from the service on January 14, 1889. 

Mr. Riker is a member of the Order of the Cincinnati in the 
State of New Jei'sey, being a collateral descendant of Dr. John 
Berrien Riker, surgeon of the Foiui.h New Jersey Regiment of 
the Continental Line. He is also a member of the Union, St. 
Nicholas, American Yacht, and New York Yacht clubs of New 
York, the Apawamis Clul) of Rye, New York, the Down-Town 
Association, the St. Nicholas and Holland societies, the Society 
of Colonial Wars, the Sons of the Revolution, and the Society of 
the War of 1812. 

He was maiTied, in April, 1881, to Edith M. Bartow, daughter 
of Samuel Blackwell Bartow, but has no issue. 




JOHN LAWRENCE RIKER 



THE name of Riker takes memory back to ancient days, 
when Hans von Rycken and his kinsman Melchior took 
part in the first crusade, as leaders of a goodly company in 
the army of Walter the Penniless. Hans von Rycken was 
then Lord of the Manor of Rycken, in Lower Saxony, to wit, 
the country at the mouth of the Elbe River. For many gen- 
erations the Rycken family was conspicuous and numerous there, 
in Holstein and Hamburg, and also in Switzerland. In the 
foiu'teenth and fifteenth centuries it became established in Am- 
sterdam, and played a leading and worthy part in the history 
of the Netherlands in those stm'ing times. The R^'ckens were 
loyal suppoi*ters of William the Silent in his memorable struggle 
against the tj^ranuy of Spain, and amid the vicissitudes of that 
long contest they lost much of their fortune. In time, how- 
ever, when a New Netherlands colony was established at the 
mouth of the Hudson River, some members of the family came 
hither to seek new fortunes in the New World. 

Foremost among these was Abraham Rycken, who received 
from Governor Kieft in 1638 the allotment of a large tract of 
laud in the Wallabout, and who had a place of business on 
Manhattan Island at what is now the comer of Broad and 
Beaver streets. In 1G54 he received a grant of a farm at 
Bowery Bay, and thereafter Uved upon it. Again, on August 
19, 1664, Governor Stuyvesant gave him a patent of an island 
in the East River, or Sound, then called Hewlett's Island. It 
was thereafter known as Rycken's or Riker's Island, and re- 
tains that name to this day. It remained in the possession 
of the family until 1845, when it became the property of the 
city of New York. 

278 



JOHN LAWBENCE RIKER 279 

Abraham Rycken mamed Grietie, daughter of Hendriek Har- 
mensen, aud had nine children, fi-om whom practically all the 
Rikers iu the United States are descended. One of his sons, 
Abraham Riker, married Grietie, daughter of Jan Gerrits Van 
Buytenhuysen and his wife, Tryutie Van Luyt, Hollanders, 
and inherited the family estate. He left the place in tm-n to 
his son, Andrew Riker, who married Jane, daughter of John 
Benien. His children were prominent in the Revolutionary 
War, all three of his sons serving with (Ustinguished gallantry 
in the patriot ranks. The youngest of these, Samuel Riker, 
was for a long time prisoner in the hands of the British. After 
the war he became prominent in civil life on Long Island, was 
once a member of the State Assembly, and for two terms was 
a Representative in Congress. He married Anna Lawrence, 
daughter of Joseph Lawrence of the well-known Long Island 
family of that name, and had nine children, several of whom 
became prominent in public affairs. One of them, Richard 
Riker, was District Attorney of New York, and afterward and 
for many years one of the most honored Recorders the city 
has had. Another was Andrew Riker, a ship-owner, captain 
of the privateers Yorlioicn and Saratoga in the War of 1812. 
The youngest of the sons of Samuel Riker was John Lawrence 
Riker, who was bom in 1787, and was educated in Flatbush, 
Long Island, in the famous old Erasmus Hall School. He 
studied law in the office of his brother, Richard Riker, the 
Recorder, and practised the profession for more than half a 
century. He made his home on the old family estate at Bowery 
Bay, Long Island, and was twice married. His wives were sis- 
ters, daughters of Sylvanus Smith, a prominent citizen of North 
Hempstead, Long Island, and a descendant of James Smith, 
who came to New England with Governor Winthrop. The 
Smiths had settled at Hempstead a few years after the Rikers 
settled at Bowery Bay, and received their patent from the same 
Governor Kieft. 

A son of John Lawrence Riker's second wife, Lavinia Smith, 
is the subject of the present sketch. He was born at Boweiy 
Bay in 1830, and received his father's full name, John Law- 
rence Riker. He was carefully educated in the Astoria Acad- 
emy, under Dr. Haskins, and under private tutors at home. 



280 JOHN LAWEENCE BIKEK 

Upon completing his education, he selected a business career, 
and entered upon it in New York city, where for many years 
he has ranked among the foremost merchants of the metrop- 
olis. 

Mr. Riker was married in 1857 to Miss Mary Anne Jackson, 
and has seven children now living. These are John Jackson 
Riker, Henry Laurens Riker, Margaret M. Lavinia Riker, Sam- 
uel Riker, Mattina Riker, Charles Lawi-enee Riker, and May 
J. Riker. 

The city home of Mr. Riker is at No. 19 West Fifty-seventh 
Street. He has also a summer home at Seahright, New Jersey, 
where he spends much of his time. He is a member of nu- 
merous social organizations, including the Holland and St. 
Nicholas societies, the Sons of the Revolution, and the St. 
Nicholas, Union League, Metropolitan, City, Riding, New York 
Yacht, Seawanhaka, Corinthian Yacht, and New York Athletic 
clubs. 




PERCIYAL ROBERTS, JR. 



THE present age has often been called the age of engineering, 
with no little propriety. Never before did engineering en- 
terprises, especially bridge-building and raikoads, play so domi- 
nant a part in the economy of civilization. There is no class of 
business men more potent for promoting the progress of the race 
than those who have to do witli ir(jn and steel production, bridge 
construction, and the building and operation of railroads. Nat- 
iirally, therefore, among their ranks are to be found some of the 
most noteworthy figures of the day. 

Percival Roberts, Jr., who is one of the foremost members of 
the great United States Steel Corporation, is a native of that 
State in which the iron and steel industries of the nation have 
long been so largely centered. He was born in the city of Phila- 
delphia, in July, 1857, and received a careful and thorough 
education. 

Early in the summer of 1876 he was graduated from Haver- 
ford College with the degree of A. B. His tastes inclining 
toward scientific and engmeering work, he spent the next few 
mouths in the ser\ace of the Pennsylvania Greological Survey. 
Thereafter he took a postgi'aduate course in metallurgy and 
chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Meantime, while pursuing this latter eom*se, he began prac- 
tical business work as a clerk in the office of A. & P. Roberts & 
Co., a firm of which his father was a mem1)er. This firm owned 
and operated the famous Pencoj^d Iron Works at Pencoyd, 
Pennsylvania, one of the largest iron-works and especially one 
of the chief bridge-building concerns in the world. In time he 
became manager for A. & P. Roberts & Co., and when that com- 
pany was reorganized into a corporation he became at first vice- 



L'Sl 



282 PEKCIVAL R0BEKT8, JR. 

president and later president of the latter. Two years ago the 
Pencoyd Works were merged into the then newly formed Ameri- 
can Bridge Company of New York, and Mr. Roberts was appro- 
priately chosen president of the new corporation, and he held 
that place until the American Bridge Company was in turn 
merged into the still greater United States Steel Corporation, 
with its capital of more than a bilhon of dollars. Mr. Roberts 
then became a du'ector and member of the executive committee 
of the last-named corporation, and the representative on that 
board of the American Bridge Company's vast interests. 

Mr. Roberts is president of the Pencoyd & Philadelphia 
Railroad Company, and a director of the Continuous Metal 
Refining Company. He is a director of tlie United States Steel 
Corporation and of the Philadelphia National Bank, and he is a 
member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, of the 
American Institute of Mining Engineers, and of the American 
Society of Mechanical Engineers. 




<*?' 





FREDERICK LEO RODEWALD 



THE three famous old "Hanse towns" or free cities of north- 
ern Germany— to wit, Hamlnirg, Bremen, and Liiberk— 
have contributed much to the world's progress and activities 
in trade and finance, and enjov important rank in the lousi- 
ness world to-day. The first two names, especiall}', have main- 
tained their prosperity and influence, and have established par- 
ticularly close relations with the United States as well as with 
European countries. They have also sent not a few" of their 
sons to this country, to be incorporated into the cosmopolitan 
popidation of America, and to continue here the business ca- 
reers with which they were identified in the old country. 

One such visitor to the United States, in the last century, was 
Adolf Rodewald, a banker of Bremen. He came to this country 
and established himself in business in New York, making his 
home on Staten Island. He married an American wdfe. Miss 
Catherine Julia McNeill, wlio Itoi'c him a son, the subject of the 
lU'csent sketch. 

Frederick Leo Rodewald was l>orn at New Brighton, Staten 
Island, New York, on October 20, 1855, and was carefully edu- 
cated in public and private schools. His natural inclination and 
aptitiide were toward the same business as that in which his 
father was successfully engaged, and accordingly in 1872, at the 
age of seventeen years, he entered the employment of the well- 
kno^vn banking house of Henry Clew\s & Co., New York, begin- 
ning his service in the capacity of an errand boy. For thirteen 
years he was employed in various capacities by various Wall 
Street firms, during which time he amassed some capital and 
acquired a valuable practical knowledge of financial affairs. 

283 



284 FBEDEBICK LEO KODEWALD 

At last he decided to venture into business on his own account. 
This was on Marcli 1, 1885. At that time he joined the late 
Joshua William Davis in forming the firm of J. W. Davis & Co., 
linkers and brokers, in New York city. Some years later Mr. 
Davis died, but the firm was maintained vinder the old name. 
At present the firm consists of Mr. Rodewald, J. Edward Davis, 
Arthur W. Rossiter, and William Brevoort Potts. It does a 
large and jn-ofitable lousiness, and enjoys an enviable reputation 
on "the Street." 

Mr. Rodewald has long been a member of the New York Stock 
Exchange, and is a member of its governing committee. He 
is also vice-president of the First National Bank of Staten 
Island, and a director of the Railway Securities Company of 
New York. 

Ml'. Rodewald has not interested himself in politics Ijeyond 
fulfilling the duties of a i)rivate citizen. He is a member of sev- 
eral prominent social organizations in New York city, both in 
the Borough of Manhattan and on Staten Island, where he 
continues to make his home. These include the Metropolitan 
Club, the New York Yacht Club, the Atlantic Yacht Club, the 
Richmond Coimty Covmtry Club, and the Staten Island Club. 

He was married some years ago to Miss Louise G. Meylert, 
of Scranton, Pennsylvania, and has one child, Anna Fredericka 
Rodewald. 




JORDAN JACKSON ROLLINS 



THE ancestry of Jordan Jackson Rollins, like liis name, is a 
typically New England one. His parents, Franklin J. and 
Arabella C. Rollins, were descended from various English fami- 
lies—one of them partly Irish— which were settled in this coun- 
try in the earliest colonial times. These were the families of 
Rollins, Waldron, Jackson, Shipleigh, Wentworth, Pcnhallow, 
Jordan, and others l)earing names familiar in New England his- 
tory. These all came to this country before 1670. They were all 
purely English except the Jordans, who were in part Irish, and 
they all settled in New England, liecame thoroughly identified 
with it, and do\\'n to the present time have largely remained 
there, though some members of the various families have mi- 
grated to other parts of the United States. 

Jordan Jackson Rollins was born in the ])eautiful and historic 
city of Portland, Maine, on December 20, 1869, his j^arents being 
i-esidents of that city, and his father being engaged in the insur- 
ance business there. In his boyhood he attended the public 
schools of Portland and was prepared foi' a collegiate career. 
At the age of nineteen he was matriculated at Dartmouth Col- 
lege, and for four years pursued its regular course, l)eing gradu- 
ated with the baccalaureate degree in 1892. The next year was 
spent in the Law School of Harvard University, where he re- 
ceived an admirable grounding in the pi'inciples of the profes- 
sion which he had elected to pursue. Then he left college and 
entered the law office of the Hon. Daniel G. Rollins, one of the 
foremost lawj^ers of New Yoi-k city, and there completed his 
studies X)reparatory to achnission to the bar. He was admitted 
to jiraetice at the bar of the State of New York in November, 
1894. 



285 



286 JOBDAN JACKSON ROLLINS 

Since the latter date Mr. Rollins has practised his profession 
in New York with steadily increasing success. His independent 
practice began in 1897, when he established the firm of Rollins 
& Rollins, his partner therein being his brother, Philip Ashton 
Rollins. 

Mr. Rollins has not held nor sought political preferment, nor 
been especially concerned in jjolities beyond exercising the 
privileges and performing the duties of a private citizen. 

He has become interested in various business enterprises witli 
which he has professionally l)een bi'ought into contact, and is 
connected with, among others, tlie Ninth National Bank and 
tlie Windsor Trust Company of New York city, and with the 
United Indurate Fibre Company of New Jersey. 

Mr. Rollins is a member of a number of leading social and pro- 
fessional organizations, among which may be mentioned the 
Union League Club, the University Club, the Har\-ard Club, 
the New York x\thletic Club, the Bar Association, and the Law 
Institute of New York. He is unmarried, and makes his home 
in New York. 





\^la-c^ cr LC /A O -O -3^e-i^^ ^/- 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

IT^EW names are so prominently and so honorably identified with 
- the history and substantial uTOwth of New York city as 
that of Roosevelt. It was planted here in early times by pioneers 
from Holland. It is perpetuated upon the map and in the records 
of the city through being borne by a street, a great hospital, and 
other public institutions. Most of all, it has been borne in many 
successive generations by men of high character and important 
achievements, who have littiugiy led the way for the present 
conspicuous representative of the family. For eight generations 
before him the paternal ancestors of Theodore Roosevelt were 
settled in New York, and more than one of them attained dis- 
tinction in business, in philanthropic work, and in the public 
service of city. State, and nation. They have intermarried with 
other prominent families, of other racial origins, so that iu this 
generation there is a mingling of Dutch, Scotch, Irish, and 
French Huguenot blood within the Roosevelt veins. 

Of such ancestry Theodore Roosevelt was l)orn, at No. 28 East 
Twentieth Street, New York, on October 27, 1858. He was grad- 
uated from Harvard in 1880, and then spent some time in Euro- 
pean travel. On his retiu-n home he studied law. In the fall of 
1881 he was elected to the State Assemldy from the Twenty-first 
District of New York city. By reelection he continued in that 
body diu'ing the sessions of 1883 and 1884. He introduced im- 
portant reform measures, and his entire legislative career was 
made cousi^icuous by the courage and zeal with which he assailed 
political abuses. As chairman of the committee on cities he 
introduced the measure whicli took from the Board of Aldermen 
the power to confirm or reject the appointments of the Mayor. 
He was chairman of the noted legislative investigating com- 
mittee which bore his name. 

287 



288 THEODORE KOOSEVELT 

In 188G Mr. Roosevelt was the Republican candidate for Mayor 
against Abram S. Hewitt, candidate of the United Democracy, 
and Henry George, United Labor candidate. Mr. Hewitt was 
elected. In 1889 Mr. Roosevelt was appointed by President 
Harrison a member of the United States Civil Service Commis- 
sion. His ability and rugged honesty in the administration of 
the affairs of that office greatly helped to strengthen his hold on 
popular regard. He continued in that office until May 1, 1895, 
when he resigned to accept the office of Police Commissioner of 
New York city from Mayor Strong. Through his fearlessness 
and administrative ability as president of the board the demoral- 
ized poUce force was greatly imprc zed. 

Early in 1897 he was called by the President to give up his 
New York office to become Assistant Secretary of the Navy. 
Then again his energy and quick mastery of detail had much to 
do with the speedy equipment of the navy for its brilliant feats 
in the war with Spain. But soon after the outbreak of the war 
in 1898 his patriotism and love of active life led him to leave the 
comparative quiet of his government office for service in the 
field. As a lieutenant-colonel of volunteers he recruited the First 
Volunteer Cavalry, popularly known as the Rough Riders. The 
men were gathered largely from the cow-boys of the West and 
Southwest, l)ut also numbered many college-bred men of the 
East. 

In the beginning he was second in command, with the rank of 
heutenant-colonel, Dr. Leonard Wood being colonel. But at 
the close of the war the latter was a lu'igadier-general, and Roose- 
velt was colonel in command. Since no horses were transported 
to Cuba, this regiment, together with the rest of the cavalry, was 
obliged to serve on foot. The regiment distinguished itself in the 
Santiago campaign, and Colonel Roosevelt became famous for 
his bravery in leading the charge up San Juan Hill on July 1. 
He was an efficient officer, and won tlie love and admiration of 
his men. His care for them was shown by the cu'culation of the 
famous " round robin" which he wrote, protesting against keep- 
ing the army longer in Cuba. 

Upon Colonel Roosevelt's return to New York there was a 
popular demand for his nomination for Governor. Previous to 
the State Convention he was nominated by the Citizens' Union, 



THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 289 

but be decliued, replying tbat be was a Republican. Tbe Demo- 
crats tried to fi-ustrate bis nomination by attempting to prove 
tbat be bad lost bis legal residence in this State. Tbat plan 
failed, and be was nominated in tbe convention by a vote of 
seven bundred and fifty-tbi'ee to two bundred and eigbteen. Tbe 
campaign tbi-ougbout tbe State was spirited. Colonel Roosevelt 
took tbe stump and delivered many speecbes. His plurality was 
eigbteen thousand and seventy-nine. 

Early in tbe year 1900 it became evident tbat be was tbe pop- 
ular favorite for tbe nomination for Vice-President of tbe United 
States on tbe Republican ticket. Personally be would have pre- 
feiTed renomination for tbe Clovernorsbip of New York ; but tbe 
unanimity and earnestness of tbe call for bim to take a place 
upon tbe national ticket prevailed. In tbe National Repuljlican 
Convention at Pbiladelpbia, on June 21, 1900, President McKinley 
was renominated l)y acclamation, and Governor Roosevelt was 
nominated for Vice-.President, also by acclamation. He suc- 
ceeded to tbe Presidency on September 14, 1901, u^jon tbe deatb 
of McKinley under an assassin's band, and bas since adminis- 
tered bis bigb office in a manner justifying bis selection for it. 

In tbe midst of bis intensely active life Mr Roosevelt bas found 
time to do considerable literary work. Tbe year after be was 
graduated from college be published bis " Naval War of 1812 " ; 
in 1886 there came from bis pen a " Life of Thomas H. Benton," 
published in the American Statesmen Series ; tbe following 
year be published a " Life of Grouverneur Morris," which was 
followed in 1888 by bis popular " Ranch Life and Hunting TraiL" 
In 1889 were published the first two volumes of what be con- 
siders bis greatest work, " Tbe Winning of the West." In 1890 
be added to tbe series of Historic Towns a " History of New 
York City." " Essays on Practical Politics," published in 1892, 
was followed the next year by " The Wilderness Hmiter," while 
in 1894 be added a third volume to his " Winning of tbe West." 
In 1898 he collected a volume of essays, entitled "American 
Pobtical Ideas." Since the Spanish War he bas written a book 
on tbe Rough Riders, and a series of articles on Oliver Crom- 
well by bim has appeared in " Scribner's." 



ELIHU ROOT 

BY nativity Elihu Root is a son of New York State. Throngli 
ancestry he belongs to New England, and before that to old 
England. His father, Oren Root, is admiringly and affectionately 
remembered as one of the foremost educators of his day, having 
been professor of mathematics in Hamilton College from 1849 
to 1885, and for a part of that time also professor of mineralogy 
and geology. In 18-15 tlui family home was at Clinton, Oneida 
County, New York, and tliere, on February 15 of that year, Elihu 
Root was born. His early years were spent at that place, and 
his early education was gained at home and at the local schools. 
At the age of fifteen years he was fitted to enter college, and the 
college of his choice was Hamilton, with which his father was 
so conspicuously identified. There he pursued a course note- 
worthy not only for his admirable mastery of his studies but 
also for the decided and forceful, manly character which he devel- 
oped. It may be added that he paid his own way through college 
by teaching school. In 1864 he was duly graduated, and forth- 
with entered upon the study of the law. At this time his means 
were still limited, and he was compelled to act as a tutor while 
he was a law student in order to pay his way. These double 
duties were, however, successfully perfoiTned. His law studies 
were chiefly pursued in the Law School of New York University, 
then called the University of the City of New York, and in 1867 
lie was graduated and admitted to practice at the bar. 

Seldom does a young lawyer attain success so immediate and 
so substantial as that which marked Mr. Root's career. He 
served an apprenticeship in the office of Man & Parsons, and 
theii fomied a partnership with John H. Strahan. Later he 
formed a partnership with Willard Bartlett, who became a jus- 

290 



s 



ELIHU ROOT 291 

tiee of the Supreme Court. He was at one time counsel for 
William M. Tweed. In the famous Stewart will case he was 
chief counsel for Judge Hilton. He was also chief counsel for 
the executors in the Hoj'-t and Fayerweather will cases. He 
was prominent in the Broadway street-railroad litigation, in the 
Sngar Trust litigation, and in the sviit of Shipman, Barlow, La- 
rocque & Choate against the Bank of the State of Now York 
(growing out of the notorious Bedell forgeries). In the aque- 
duct litigation of O'Brien rs. the Mayor of the city of New York 
he was successful against the opposition of Joseph H, Choate, and 
thus saved to the city some millions of dollars. In many other 
important cases Mr. Root has heen successfully engaged, and at 
the time of his entry into the President's cabinet he had one of 
the largest practices in the entire legal profession of New York. 

Mr. Root early took an acti\^e interest in politics, as a Repub- 
lican. In 1879 he was a candidate for judge of the Coiu't of 
Common Pleas, and although defeated with the rest of the Re- 
pul)lican ticket he polled a large vote. President Arthm* in 
1883 appointed him United States District Attorney for the 
Southern District of New York, and he held that place mitil the 
middle of President Cleveland's first term, when he resigned it. 
He became the leader of the Repubhcan party in his Assembly 
District, and was the representative of that district on the 
Connty Committee. In 1886 and 1887 he was chairman of the 
Republican County Committee. In 1893-94 Mr. Root became 
dissatisfied with the "machine methods" of party management, 
and was a conspicuous member of the Committee of Thirty 
which undertook the reform of the party organization. Again, 
in 1897, he was a vigorous supporter of Setli Low for the Mayoi*- 
alty, against the Republican maclnne and Tammany candidates. 
In 1898 he was an earnest advocate of the nomination and elec- 
tion of Theodore Roosevelt as Governor of New York, and was 
liis counsel in some important matters relating to the campaign. 

Upon the resignation of General Alger, in July, 1899, Mr. 
Root was chosen by President McKinley to succeed him as 
Secretary of War. He at once entered upon the duties of that 
important office with his characteristic energy and abihty, and 
soon obtained a masterly knowledge of the details of the depart- 
ment. He did more than that. He initiated large reforms and 



292 ELIHU BOOT 

improvements in the military organization of the country, and 
was instrumental in effecting their adoption. The troubles in 
the Phihppines and in China have made the War Department 
a center of great responsibihty and activity during Mr. Root's 
incumbency, but the confidence of the President and the nation 
in his ability to discharge all his duties has never wavered. 

Mr. Root is a member of the Bar Association, the New England 
Society, the Union League, Repubhcan, Centmy, Metropolitan, 
University, Lawyers', Players', and other clubs of New York, 
He has been president of the New England Society and of the 
Union League and Republican clubs, and vice-president of the 
Bar Association. He has frequently appeared in public as an 
orator on important occasions, and is esteemed as one of the 
most eloquent and convincing speakers of the day. He has long 
been a trustee of Hamilton College, and in 1894 received from 
that institution the degree of LL. D. 




PETER FREDERICK ROTIIERMEL, JR. 



T 



HE Rotliermel family in the United States is of Dutch 
origin, and was transplanted from Holland to the Wyoming 
Valley, in Pennsylvania, in 1703. A hundred years later the fam- 
ily removed to Philadelphia, where the then head of it became 
proprietor of one of the cliief hotels. A son of the latter, Peter 
Frederick Rotliermel, who had been born in the Wyoming Val- 
ley, was educated to be a sm'veyor, but soon turned his attention 
to painting, and attained an enviable rank as an artist. Proba- 
bly his best known work is his " Battle of Gettysburg," thovigh 
some other canvases from his brush are even more highly esteemed 
by critics. 

The svibject of this sketch, Peter Frederick Rothermel, Jr., is 
a son of the artist. He was born in Philadelphia on September 
27, 1850, and was at first sent to the schools of that city. Later 
he was taken to Europe by his parents, and for three years 
studied in France, Italy, and Germany. Retiu-ning to Philadel- 
phia, he pursued the full regular course of the Central High 
School, an institution of collegiate rank. He was a brilliant 
student, and was graduated with honor in 1867. He then 
entered the law office of James T. Mitchell, who has since 
become a justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, as a 
student, and in due time was admitted to the bar as a practising 
lawyer. 

Mr. Rothermel soon showed himself a master of his profes- 
sion. His incisive and convincing oratory, and his shrewdness 
in questioning, made him an admirable jury lawyer, and ho 
would undoubtedly have attained great success in criminal prac- 
tice. His personal tastes led him, however, into the less tumul- 
tuous field of civil practice, in which his success has been 



294 PETER FREDERICK ROTHERMEL, JR. 

noteworthy and unbroken. He lias paid especial attention to 
the laws affecting business and large corporations, and has been 
the counsel and legal adviser of a number of the most important 
industrial and mercantile estabhshments in Philadelphia. 

His prominence at the bar made Mr. Rothermel long ago a 
marked man for political promotion, if he were willing to accept 
it. He early took a keen interest in politics, as a Republican, 
and contributed much in many ways to the promotion of the 
party's welfare. In 1884 he was strongly put forward as a can- 
didate for City Sohcitor, but withdrew from the contest in favor of 
another. Later, on several occasions, his friends put him for- 
ward as a candidate for a judgeship, but he did not encourage 
their efforts. Finally, in 1899, he was elected District Attorney 
by a handsome majority, and thus a radical change was made in 
the course of his professional career. The difference between 
the work of a corporation and a prosecuting attorney is very 
great, but Mr. Rothermel has seemed to be as much the master 
of the one as of the other. It is not too much to say that he 
quickly placed himself in the foremost rank of the district attor- 
neys of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Rothermel has inherited a measure of his father's artistic 
tastes, and has continued throughout his busy professional 
career to follow the intellectual and literary pursuits which he 
began in his school days. He has an exceptionally courteous 
demeanor, even toward his opponents in the most bitterly con- 
tested law-suit, and is a favorite figure in the best society. He 
was married in 1881 to Miss Josephine Bryant, the daughter of 
a prominent coal operator of Pennsylvania, and has one child, a 
son, who was born in 1883. 




WILLIAM SALOMON 

WILLIAM SALOMON, until recently resident partner in 
New York of the international banking firm of Speyer & 
Co., one of the strongest financial hnks between the United 
States, England, and (Tennany, is a representative of one of the 
oldest and most distinguished Hebrew families of America. He 
is a son of David Salomon, and a direct descendant of Haym 
Salomon, the Philadelphia banker and patriot who devoted his 
large fortune to the service of the Republic in the Revolutionary 
War. His mother's maiden name was Rosahe Alice Levy, and 
she was a grauddaugliter of Jacob de Leon of Charleston, South 
Carolina, a captain in the Revolutionary Army, and a great- 
granddaughter of Hayman Levy, who was a conspicuous mer- 
chant in the early days of New York, and in whose establishment 
the distinguished merchants John Jacob Astor and Nicholas 
Low gained their fii'st commercial training. 

Mr. Salomon was born at Mobile, Alabama, on October 9, 1852, 
and a few years later was brought, with his family, to Philadel- 
phia, where his boyhood was spent. After his mother's death, 
in 1861, and when he had just begun his studies in the Ferris 
Latin School in Philadelphia, a severe ilhiess so prostrated him 
that for several years he was unable to attend school. Then, in 
1861, he was removed to New York, where his health rapidly 
improved. He was for some time an inmate of the household 
of the Rev. J. J. Lyons, one of the foremost Hebrew rabbis of 
New York, and there studied under private tutors. The next 
year his father, who had remarried, also removed to New York, 
and sent the lad to the Columbia Grammar School, with the 
purpose of fitting him for business as soon as practicable, with- 
out a college course. In that school Mi\ Salomon had among 

295 



296 WILLIAM SALOMON 

his fellows Felix Adler, Frank Lathrop, Cleveland Coxe, and 
the Kobhe brothers. 

At the age of fifteen years he finished his course at the 
Grammar School, and at once entered the employ of the house of 
Speyer & Co., with which he was for many years associated, and 
which was then known as Phihp Speyer & Co. There his prac- 
tical business education was begun, and at the same time he 
earnestly pursued the study of French and German, perceiving 
the immense value in his chosen calUng of thorough knowledge 
of those languages. After a time, having familiarized himself 
with the details of the New York office, he had himself trans- 
ferred to the principal offices of the house at Frankfort-on-the- 
Main, CTermauy. He left New York in 1870, and was welcomed 
in London by Robert Speyer, the resident English partner of the 
finn, and by John S. Gilliat, then a du-ector and later governor 
of the Bank of England. The outbreak of the Franco-German 
War made it seem inexpedient for him to proceed at once to 
Frankfort, and he accordingly remained in England until near 
the end of 1870, when all danger of a French invasion of Ger- 
many was seen to be past. He then proceeded to Frankfort, 
and spent two years imder the personal direction of the memliers 
of the Speyer family and firm. 

Mr. Salomon retm-ued to New York in 1872, and about three 
years later was placed, in conjimction with another young man, 
in general charge of the New York office of Speyer & Co. In 
1878 William B. Bonn became the head of the office, but Mr. 
Salomon's activity and responsil)ihty remained unchanged until 
1882, when he was admitted as a member of the firm. The firm 
of Speyer & Co. had been foremost during the Civil War in the 
United States in placing American loans and securities upon the 
German market, and had thus gained great prestige. Later it 
placed in the same market large issues of Central Pacific Rail- 
road, Southern Pacific, and other securities, and still later became 
the issuing firm for the Pennsylvania, the Chicago, Milwaukee 
& St. Paul, the Illinois Central, and the Chicago, Rock Island 
& Pacific railroads. Mr. Salomon personally was prominently 
interested in the reorganization of the Baltimore & Ohio Rail- 
road, and was for some time chairman of its Board of Directors, 
from which place he has now retired. 



WILLIAM SALOMON 297 

Mr. Salomon i? now at the head of a banking house of his own 
in the new Broad Exchange Building, at No. 25 Broad Street, 
New York. 

Mr. Salomon's political affiliations are with the Democratic 
pai'ty, but he has taken little active part in politics since 1891, 
when he was chamnau of the Finance Committee of the New 
York State Democracy, and strongly supported the renomination 
of Mr. Cleveland for the Presidency because of the latter's devo- 
tion to the cause of sound finance. He has been a wide traveler, 
visiting every State and Temtory of the United States, every 
important Eiu'opean city, and Morocco, Tunis, Egypt, and the 
Upper NiTe. He has written for magazines a number of meri- 
torious articles on financial a:id other topics, and takes a deep 
and cultivated interest in art and archaeology. 

Mr. Salomon's personal characteristics are strongly marked. 
His love and practice of fairness and justice have marked all his 
business careei", as has also his blending of courtesy and disci- 
pline. His employees aiv. treated by him as friends and col- 
leagues, and are thus ])ound to him by ties of more than ordinary 
strength and permanence. Physically of slight build, he is 
always " well gToomed," and thus in his person sets forth his 
love of order and neatness, and of elegance without ostenta- 
tion. His expression is affable and engaging, but when deeply 
engrossed in his business becomes austere. He inherits many 
of his father's traits, such as pleasing vocal intonations and ges- 
tures in conversation. He has been from boyhood a lover of 
books and a wide and discriminating reader, and consequently 
has a fluent and graceful style hi talking and in letter-wi-iting. 

Mr. Salomon was married, in 1892, to Mrs. Helen Forbes Lewis, 
a daughter of WilUam McKenzie Forbes of Taine, Ross-shire, 
Scotland. 




KICKHAM SCANLAN 

ONE of the best-known and most successful lawj^ers of Chi- 
cago is Kickham Scanlan, who is a native of the great 
city hy the lake and has all his life been identified with it. 

Mr. Scanlan was horn in Chicago on October 23, 1864, at 
which time the city was rapidly rising to foremost rank among 
the great cities of the West, though it was yet to be transformed 
through fire and thus incomparably improved. A x)art of his 
boyhood was spent in the city of Washington, D. C, where 
he was educated in the public schools and high school. Then 
he took a course at the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. 
Returning to Chicago in 1882, Mr. Scanlan began mercantile 
life in the employ of W. P. Rend & Co. of Chicago, a firm 
engaged in tlie mining and shii)ping of coal. That connection 
lasted until the early part of 1886. 

At that time Mr. Scanlan entered the law offices of Luther 
Laflin Mills & Georg(! ('. Ingham of Chicago. This fii-m was 
then one of the foremost law firms of the West, and tlici'e could 
be no better place of pi-eparation for the young man. He 
remained in that office for seven years, Mr. Ingham dying in 
1892. 

Since 1893 Mr. Scanlan has been practising law in Chicago at 
the head of an office of his own, which now ranks among the 
best known in that city. It has been his fortune, or perhaps it 
would bo more correct to say the result and reward of his mei'its, 
to be connected with a number of conspicuous and important 
cases, which have brought his name forward to the front rank 
of the profession. 

His prominence in court cases began, indeed, while he was 
still in the office of Mills & Ingham. He was connected with 

298 



KICKHAM SCANLAN 299 

the prosecution of the famous tally-sheet fi-auds case, tried at 
Cohunbus, Ohio, in 1888. At about the same time he was one 
of the attonieys in the defense of WiUiam J. McGarigle in the 
so-called "boodle" cases, that attracted the widest attention. 
He was associated with the prosecution in the noted Milliu.i^ton 
poisoning case at Denver, Colorado, which came to trial in 1891. 
One of his most famous cases was the Cronin murder trial. He 
was one of the prosecuting attorneys in the trials of the men 
accused of mmxlering Dr. Patrick H. Cronin, the Irish leader. 
There were two trials in Chicago, one in 1889 and one in 1893. 
Owing to the political and secret-society issues involved, the 
case commanded the widest interest all over the country. 

Mr. Seanlan was an att(5rney for the prosecution in the famous 
O'Donnell and Graham jury bribing case, which was tried in 
Chicago in 1890, and he has served on one side or the other in a 
large share of the most noted criminal trials which have occurred 
in Chicago in the last dozen years. At the present time Mr. 
Seanlan is devoting most of his time to the trial of civil cases, 
and is rising to high rank as a civil lawyer. 

One of the latest of the prominent criminal cases in which Mr. 
Seanlan has taken part was the defense of Harry H. Hammond, 
charged with the shooting of John T. Shayne, the well-known 
Chicago merchant. Mr. Hammond was acquitted. 

Mr. Seanlan is a Repuljlican in politics, but has held and 
sought no public office. He belongs to many of the foremost 
social clubs and other organizations of Chicago. 




CHARLES T. SCIIOEN 

IT^ROM cooper-boy to millionaire is, iii brief, the story of the 
- career of Charles T. Schoen, the inventor and manufacturer 
of the pressed-stoel cars which are now so widely coming into 
use on the railroads of the world, liis early life was spent at 
the home and in the cooperage shop of liis father at Wilmington, 
Delaware. His father was a man of moderate means, and tlu; 
boy became an apprentice in his shop, at the same time, however, 
diligently reading and studying all good books he could get. At 
the age of eighteen he had saved enough money to pay his tui- 
tion fees at an academy, though he continued to worl< in tlie 
shop for four hours a day while attending the institution. 

Mr. Schoen was married at the early age of twenty-one, while 
he was still a journeyman cooper. He had no innnediate pros- 
pect of anj'thing better than to stick to that trade, Imt he decided 
to follow it in a larger place than Wilmington, so he went to 
Philadelphia and secured employment. Tliere he presently came 
into contact with some sugar refiners, and ent ered into an aiTange- 
ment to manufacture molasses barrels for them. Thus lie was en- 
abled to start a cooi)erage factory of his own, with a dozen men in 
his employ. For a time he succeeded, but then failed, tlirough giv- 
ing credit to an untrustworthy customer. He tlien sot out for 
the West, and arrived in Chicago with a friend. They had 
seventy -nine cents in cash and a kit of carpenter's tools between 
them. For a couple of months Mr. Schoen worked at a job in 
that city, and then returned East. He next seem'ed a place in a 
spring factory in Philadelphia, on a small salary. A year later 
he received an interest in the business. Two years later he 
became a partner in the firm, and was rapidly accumulating 
capital. 

300 




f 



CHARLES T. SCHOEN 301 

It was while he was engaged in this business that he conceived 
the idea of substituting pressed-steel for cast-ii-on work on 
freight-cars. He patented his device, and with the sixty thou- 
sand dollars he had saved in the spring business began the 
pressed-steel car business in Philadelphia, in 1888. In 1890 he 
removed to Pittsl)urg, and decided to undertake the construction 
of cars wholly of pressed steel. But his capital was scarcely 
sufficient for such an enterprise, and his works were not suital:>le 
for it. Moreover, he met with little or no encouragement from 
the railroads. He stuck to his plans, however, and in 1897, 
hearing that the Pittsbiu-g, Bessemer & Lake Erie Raih-oad 
was alx)ut to change hands, solicited an order from it for steel 
cars. By persistent efforts he got an order for two hundred, 
which was increased to six hundred before he began work on it. 
He had not facilities for building even one cai-. But he went to 
work with indomitable energy, and at the end of nine months 
he filled the whole order, and in addition had erected a five hun- 
dred thousand dollar manufacturing plant. The next order came 
from the Pittsburg & Lake Erie Railroad for one hundred and 
fifty cars, then one from the Pennsylvania for two hundred, 
and then one from the Pittsl)urg & Western for five hundred. 
Within a year he had four million dollars' worth of orders on his 
iK)<)ks. In 1898 he took into his company the Fox Pressed Steel 
Eqiiipment Company. Soon after that Mr. Schoen's works in 
Pittsburg and Allegheny were using thirty thousand tons of 
steel a month, and were turning out a hunch'ed cars a day. The 
number of employees in the works was nearly twelve thousand. 
Mr. Schoeu has now retired from the chairmanship of the 
Board of Directors of the Pressed Steel Car Company. 

Only a few years ago Mr. Schoen had nothing but a shop fifty 
by one himdred feet, in which he, his son, his nephew, and 
another man did all the work. At the present time the estab- 
lishment which he built up is capable of building a railroad 
train two hundred miles long in a year's time. " I think," says 
Mr. Schoen, " that Samuel Smiles's book ' Self -Help,' which I 
read as a child, sowed within me the genu of ambition. I have 
never had a day of despair in my life." 



CHAllLES M. SCHWAB 



CHAELES M. SCHWAB, president of the United States Steel 
Coi-pomtioD, is of American parentage, though of remote Ger- 
man ancestry, and the son of a prosperous woolen manufacturer 
of WiUiamsburg. He was born at Williamshm-g, Blair County, 
Pennsylvania, on Febniar}' 18, 1862. Ten years later the family 
removed to Loretto, Cambria County, and there the boy attended 
school at St. Francis College. For a time in his boyhood he 
drove the stage-coach from Loretto to Cresson, on which route 
his father had the contract for carr\ing the mails. 

It was in July, 1880, that he was graduated fi'om college. In 
that month he engaged to serve as a grocery clerk at Braddock, 
Pennsylvania, but before the end of the summer he left the 
store for a place in the engineering department of the Carnegie 
Steel Company, Limited. At first he was employed to drive 
stakes for the surveyors. Six months later he was chief engineer, 
and while in that position supervised the construction of eight 
of the blast-furnaces at Bessemer, including an addition to the 
rail-mill which made it the largest in the world in point of out- 
put. He remained chief engineer and assistant manager of the 
Edgai' Thomson Works from 1881 to 1887. The late William R. 
Jones was then general manager, and Mr. Schwab cooperated 
with him in the development and demonstration of the invention 
known as the "metal-mixer" wMch has made Mr. Jones's name 
famous in the metal industry of the world. The process invented 
by him is now generally used in steel-works in aU counti'ies, and 
is reckoned of great value. 

Mr. Schwab's next important step was taken in 1887, when he 
became superintendent of the Homestead Works of the Carnegie 
Steel Company. There he reconstructed the entire establish- 

302 




I 



u 




CHARLES M. SCHWAB 303 

ment, and made it the largest in the world for the production of 
steel blooms, billets, stnictural shapes, bridge-steel, boiler-plate, 
armor-plate, ship- and tank-plate, and steel castings. It was soon 
after his accession to the management at Homestead that the 
Carnegie Company undertook the manufacture of armor-plate 
for the United States navy, and that supremely important work 
was done under his personal supervision. He was successful in this 
work from the outset, and won for himself and for the works a 
world-wide reputation, and secured orders for armor-plate from 
the navies of European powers. 

Mr. Schwab remained at Homestead until October, 1889, 
Then, on the death of his friend and former chief Mr. Jones, he 
was called back to the Edgar Thomson Works as general super- 
intendent. He returned to Homestead in 1892, and directed 
both the Homestead and the Edgar Thomson works. In 1896 
he was elected a member of the board of managers, and in 
February, 1897, became president of the Carnegie Company. 
Early in 1901 the Carnegie Company and other large concerns 
in the iron, steel, tin, wire, and similar trades were united into 
the United States Steel Corporation, with a capital of $1,40-1,000,- 
000 ; and of this gigantic organization Mr. Schwab was elected 
president. 

Mr. Schwab has a world-wide reputation as an engineer and 
metallurgist, and holds membei'ship in many professional, scien- 
tific, and industrial organizations in the United States and 
Europe, including the American Iron and Steel Association, the 
American Institute of Mining Engineers, and the British Iron , 
and Steel Institute. He is a generous supporter of numerous 
beneficcmt institutions, being the founder of a free polytechnic 
school at Homestead, and a director of the Mercy Hospital at 
Pittshui'g. He is a memlier of the Pittsburg and Duquesne 
clubs of Pittsburg, and the Metropolitan Club of Washington, 
D. C, in which latter his sponsor was Gfeorge Dewey, now 
admiral of the United States navy. 

Mr. Schwab was married in 1893 to Miss Emma Dinkey, 
daughter of R. E. Dinkey of Weatherly, Carbon County, Pennsyl- 
vania, and they have a fine home at Braddock, near the Edgar 
Thomson Works. 



ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 

THE name of Seligman has long stood among the foremost 
in America for successful financiering and for business 
integrity ; and the city of New York has had no foreign-born 
citizen who has been held in higher and more deserved esteem 
than the late founder of the banking house which bears that 
name, the house of J. & W. Sehgman & Co. Joseph Seligman 
was born at Bai(a'sdorf, Bavaria, Germany, on September 22, 
1819, the son of a family of means and culture. He received an 
admirable^ education, which included a course at the University 
of Erlangen, from which he was gradiiated in 1838. He was 
noted for his proficiency in the classics, especially in Gri'eek, in 
which language he was able to converse fi^^enth^ After gradu- 
ation he studied Tuedicine for some time, and also evinced a 
l)artiality for theological studies. Thus he secured a general 
cultiu'e of far more than ordinary scope and thoroughness. 

His inclination finally led him, however, into commercial and 
financial pursuits. Impressed with the extent of op])ortunities 
offered by the United States, he came to this country in 1845. 
His first occupation here was that of a teacher, for which he was 
admirably fitted and in which he might easily have attained 
lasting and distinguished success. It was to him, however, only 
a stop-gap until he could find a place in the business world. The 
latter was presently secured in the capacity of casliier and 
private secretary to Asa Packer, who was then just beginning 
his famous career as a contractor at Nesquehoning, Pennsyl- 
vania, and who afterward became the millionaire president of 
the Lehigh Valley Railroad system. 

From that service Mr. Seligman passed into a mercantile enter- 
prise at Gfreensboro, Alabama. There he was moderately suo- 

304 




X(U(L^ /V:-^'^^'^. 



ISAAC NEWTON 8ELIGMAN 305 

cessful, and he soon accumulated enough capital to assure hhn 
of his business future. He then wrote to his brothers in Ger- 
many, of whom he had seven, telling them of the advantages 
offered by the United States and urgmg them to come hither. 
Three of them did so at once, and all the rest followed later. 
Of the first comers, Jesse and Harry Sehgman settled at 
Watertown, New York, and for seven years conducted a prosper- 
ous diy-goods business. Joseph Seligman, the pioneer, mean- 
while remained in the South, where he was finding increasing 
prosperity. 

When the brothers had accumulated enough capital for the 
piu-pose, and felt sufficiently sui-e of their ground in the new 
country, they came to New York city, united their resom-ces, and 
opened an importing house. To the fii-m thus formed they in 
time admitted their other brothers, when the latter came over 
from Europe. 

Thus they were engaged at the time of the outbreak of the 
Civil War in the United States. Joseph Sehgman then real- 
ized that there was a magnificent opportunity for beginning a 
career in the banking business. He comuuuiicated his views to 
his brothers, and quickly gained their agreement. Accordingly, 
the banking house of J. & W. Seligman was opened, in New York 
city, in 1862, This was the beginning of one of the most 
marvelous financial careers in the history of America or the 
world. 

The Sehgman Bank met with extraoixlinary success from 
almost the very first. The New York house rose to commanding 
proportions, of national importance, and Ijrauches were estab- 
lished in London, Paris, and Frankfort. Branches were also 
opened in two American cities, namely, San Francisco, where a 
consohdation was afterward formed with the Anglo-California 
Bank, and New Orleans, the latter branch being known as the 
Seligman and Helhnau Bank, Mr. Hellman being a son-in-law of 
Mr. Seligman. 

One of the earliest enterprises of the Seligmans was the intro- 
duction of United States government bonds into the money 
markets of Europe, and especially of Clermany. This was under- 
taken in 1862, in what was the darkest hour of the Union cause. 
This nation needed at that time both money and sympathy, and 



306 ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 

of neither had it received much from the Old World. The under- 
taking of the Seligmans was successful. United States credit 
was estabhshed in Europe, confidence in the stabilit}^ of this 
government was promoted, and much sympathy with the national 
cause was tlnis secured. These services were of incalculable 
value to the nation, and were none the less appreciated because 
they were also profitable to those who made them. The govern- 
ment fittingly recognized them by making the London branch of 
the Sehgman Bank the authorized European depository for the 
funds of the State and Naval departments. Nor was this the 
only patriotic service rendered by Joseph Seligman. On many 
another occasion he greatly assisted the government, and indeed 
saved its credit from imjiairment, by carrying for it large sums 
of money. Again, in 1871-72, when the government decided to 
refund the two hundred and fifty bonds, it was Mr. Sehgman 
who formulated the plans for the operation and materially assisted 
in executing them. He was a warm personal friend of General 
Grant, and was asked by him to accept the office of Secretary of 
the Treasury in his first administration. But loyalty to his bank- 
ing interests and to his many connections with large corporations 
— from which he would have had to separate himself — led him to 
decline this tempting offer. 

Joseph Seligman was a man of broad and hberal sympathies, 
in whom all beneficent causes found a cordial friend, without 
regard to distinctions of race or creed. He was the founder of the 
great Hebrew Orphan Asylum in New York, and was in many ways 
the benefactor of his fellow-Hebrews. But he also aided many 
non-Hebrew institutions and benevolent enterprises, and he was 
one of the organizers of the Society for Ethical Cultiu*e, to which 
he gave the sum of seventy thousand dollars. 

He was married in 1848, and to him and his wife, Babette 
Seligman, were born nine children, of whom the third son is 
Isaac Newton Seligman, his successor as the present head of the 
banking house. Mr. Seligman died at New Orleans on April 25, 
1880, universally honored and lamented. 

Isaac Newton Seligman, above mentioned, was born to Joseph 
and Babette Sehgman, in the city of New York, on July 10, 1855. 
His education was received entii-ely in his native city, at the 
Colmnbia Grammar School, which he entered at the age of ten 



ISAAC NEWTON SELIGMAN 307 

years, and at Columbia College, from which he was graduated 
with honors in 1876. Diu'ing his college course he was prominent 
in athletics as well as in scholarship, and was an efficient mem- 
ber of the famous winning Columbia crew which won the race at 
Saratoga in 1874 over Yale, Harvard, and nine other college crews. 
He has always been a loyal alumnus of Columbia, was for a long 
time president of the boat club, and was active in raising funds 
for the new college grounds. 

For two years after his gi'aduation from Columbia, Mr. Selig- 
man was connected with the New Orleans branch of his father's 
banking house. He there evinced a marked aptitude for finance 
in the earliest stages of his business career, and was soon looked 
vipon as the " coming man " in the rising generation of the Selig- 
man family. 

In 1878 Mr. SeHgmau came to New York city, and entered the 
banking house of J. and W. Seligman & Co. There he showed 
himself as capable as his New Orleans career had promised he 
would be, and he immediately became a conspicvious and domi- 
nant figoi-e in the banking world of the American metropolis. 
Upon the death of his father in 1880, he, with his uncle Jesse, 
succeeded to the management of the fii'm, and at the present 
time Mr. Seligman is the sole head of the famous house. 

Mr. Seligman is a director of the St. Louis and Santa Fe Rail- 
road, and of the North Shore (Boston and Lynn) Railway, a 
trustee of the Mvmich Reinsui-ance Fire Company, the National 
Sound Money League, the People's Institute, the Cooperative 
Committee on Playgrounds, the New York Audit Company, the 
St. John's Guild, and the Hebrew Charities Building. He is a 
life member of the New York Sailors' and Soldiers' Association, 
and of the National Historic Museum. He is a member of the 
Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York and was a lead- 
ing subscriber to its building fund, and was a delegate from it to 
the London Chamber of Commerce celebration. He is vice-presi- 
dent of the Baron De Hirsch Memorial Fund, and was treasurer 
of the Waring Fund. He is a director of the City and Subur- 
ban Homes Company, which is erecting improved tenements and 
dwellings. He has been a delegate to the National Conference 
of Charities and Corrections. He takes a great and active inter- 
est in charitable work, and is connected with many charitable 



308 ISAAC NEWTON 8ELIGMAN 

organizations, especially those looking to the reUef and education 
of the children of the poor. 

Mr. Sehgman takes an earnest and patriotic interest in public 
affairs, but has sought no political office. The only such office 
be has held is that of tmstee of the Manhattan State Hospital, 
to which he was appointed by Governor Morton and reappointed 
by Grovernor Roosevelt. The direction his political interest and 
affihations have taken is indicated by his official connection with 
the Sound Money League. 

He is a member of a number of prominent clubs, among which 
may be named the Lotus, the Lawyers', the University, the 
Natural Arts, and the St. Andrew's Golf clubs of New York. 

Mr. Seligman was married, in 1883, to Miss Guta Loeb, a 
daughter of Solomon Loeb, of the banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb 
& Co., of New York and Frankfort, Germany. The wedding 
took place at Frankfort. Mr. and Mrs. Seligman have two cbil- 
di'en : Joseph Lionel Seligman and Margaret Valentine Seligman. 




NICHOLAS SENN 

'^ICHOLAS SENN, surgeon, was bom of Swiss parents at 
^^ BucLs, in the canton of St. Gall, Switzerland, and at the 
age of nine years was brought by his parents to the United 
States. They settled at Ashford, Wisconsin, and the boy was 
graduated from the local grammar school with high honor in 
18G4. He then taught school for three years, after which he 
attended the Chicago Medical College. From this he was grad- 
uated in 1868, winning the first prize for a thesis on " Modus 
Operandi of Therapeutic Uses of Digitalis Purpurea." For a 
year and a half he served as house physician of the Cook County 
Hospital. Subsequently he practised medicine for five years in 
Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. In 1874 he took up his resi- 
dence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

Dr. Senn soon acquired a large practice, and became attending 
surgeon at the Milwaukee Hospital, which place he held for 
many years. In 1878 he visited Europe to attend a course of 
lectures at the Univei-sity of Munich, from which institution lie 
received his degi'ee magna ram laiide. He then visited several 
other of the most noted European universities, and in the fall of 
1878 returned to Milwaukee. In 1884 he was appointed pro- 
fessor of surgery in the CoDege of Physicians and Surgeons of 
Chicago, and served for three years in that capacity. Next, in 
1887, he was elected professor of the principles of surgery and 
of sin-gical pathology in the Rush Medical College, Chicago, and 
in 1891 he was made professor of the practice of sm-gery and 
chnical surgery in the same institixtion, upon which he removed 
bis home to Chicago. In 1898 he was placed in charge of both 
chairs of surgery. 

Dr. Senn is now also attending siu'geon to the Presbyterian 

309 



310 NICHOLAS SENN 

Hospital and siu-geon in charge of St. Joseph's Hospital, Chicago. 
He is an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians of Phila- 
delphia, of the Academy of Medicine of Mexico, and of the 
D. Hayes Agnew Surgical Society of Philadelphia, permanent 
member of the German Co!igress of Surgeons, corresponding 
member of the Harveian Society of London, honorary member 
of the Belgian Congi-ess of Surgeons, and honorary member of 
the Ohio, Minnesota, and Wisconsin State Medical societies. At 
various times he has been president of the American Medical 
Association, the American Surgical Association, the Association 
of Military Surgeons of the United States, the Wisconsin State 
Medical Society, the Chicago Medical Society, and the Chicago 
Gynecological Society. 

He has been a prolific writer on professional topics. His 
" Surgical Bacteriology '' lias been translated into French, 
Italian, and Polish; his "Intestinal Surgery" has been trans- 
lated into German ; his voluminous " Experimental Surgery " is 
a monumental work ; his " Principles of Surgery " is a widely 
used text-book ; and his " Tuberculosis of Bones and Joints," 
" Syllabus of Surgery," " Tuberculosis of the Genito-urinary 
Organs," " Pathology and Surgical Treatment of Tumors," and 
" War Correspondence in the Hispano-American War " are 
important and standard works. Besides these he has written 
many monographs and essays. He has one of the largest private 
meiUcal libraries in the United States, a large part of which he 
has given to the Newberry Library of CLicago. He has received 
the honorary degrees of Ph. D. from the University of Wisconsin 
and LL. D. from Lake Forest University and from the Jefferson 
Medical College of Philadelphia. 

Dr. Senn was appointed surgeon-general of Wisconsin State 
troops in 1890. Later he held the same place in Illinois. In the 
Spanish- American War he was chief surgeon of the volunteer 
army, with rank of lieutenant-colonel, and was stationed at Chick- 
amauga, where he founded the Leiter Hospital. Later he was 
chief of the operating staff with the army in the field, and served 
at Santiago and Ponce. At the end of the war he was chief 
surgeon at Montauk Point. 




I 



/// 



ill'fIMM/ 



DEWITT SMITH 



DEWITT S:\IITH was l)orn at Cape Vincent, in tlie State of 
New York, in March, 1858. Most of his boyhood was passed 
at Oswego, New York. In 1876 his father removed the family 
from Oswego to St. Lonis, Michigan, and it was there that the 
})nsiness career of DeVVitt Smith l)egan. He first went to work 
in the Gratiot County Bank, where, beginning in a minor posi- 
tion, lie was rapidly advanced from one place to another until 
within a little more than a year he became practically the man- 
ager of the bank. His experience in the bank made him believe 
it advisable foi- him to obtain a college training, in which idea 
his father and mother cordially enctturaged him. Accordingly, 
he withdrew from the I)ank and entered Yale College, where he 
pursued the regidar academic course, and also took the studies 
of the Yale Divinity School. 

His attendance at New Haven enabled him to form the ac- 
(puiintance of Professor Toppan, who was a man of great origi- 
nal genius, and had made some very imi^ortant discoveries in 
the manipulation of crude petroleum. In connection with Pro- 
fessor T()p])an he etfected some important and remunerative 
contracts with the Standard Oil Company for the utilizing of 
Toppan 's discoveries in the refinement of petrol eimi. Upon the 
death of Mr. Toppan, Mr. Smith turned his attention to the 
building and consolidation of railroads. 

He accpiired by purchase from the city of Petersburg, Vir- 
ginia, its control of the Richmond, Petersburg & Carolina Rail- 
road, and by building a himdred miles of new road connected it 
with the Richmond, Fredericksl)urg & Potomac Railroad. Dur- 
ing 1898 he negotiated for the purchase of various other proper- 

311 



312 DEWITT SMITH 

ties composing the Seaboard Air Line in belialf of a sjTidieate 
of wliicli he was a member, and thus led to the formation of the 
Greater Seaboard Air Line, which caused so great a sensation 
in the railroad world in 1899. These operations also caused 
him to organize the Colonial Construction Company, of wliich 
he is now the president. 

Upon the completion of this enterj^rise he acquired the con- 
trol and became the president of the Chesapeake & Western 
Railroad Company, a Southern corporation. For the pur})ose 
of carrying out the plans of extending this railroad into the 
coal-fields of West Virginia and to tidewatei' on the Atlantic 
coast, he has organized the Chespeake Western Railway and 
the Chesapeake Western Company. The railway has extended 
the line to the Virginia State line, and the comyiany has ac- 
quired a large ownership in timljer and coal lands along the 
route. Mr. Smith controls Ijoth of these companies, and is 
president of the railway. His offices and the offices of the cor- 
])()i'ations he is identified with occupy a sumptuous suite in the 
Washington Life Insurance Conii)any Building on Broadway. 

Mr. Smith built at Northampton, ]\Iassachusetts, a handsome 
Ijuilding for the exclusive use of the young ladies of Smith Col- 
lege. It is said to be tlie finest donnitorv for women in the 
country. 

^Ir. Smith's town house is on West Eighty-fifth Street, New 
York, and he also has a country place at Lake Mahopac, New 
York, the latter Ijeing where he and his family spend most of 
their time. 

He belongs to the Lawyers' Club, the Metropolitan Art Mu- 
semn, and one or two country clubs. 






miAy (f/t^n^ 



JOHN C. SPOONER 



ONE of the hcst-kiiowii of the present Senators of the United 
States, and one of those who, in scholarship, oratory, and 
statesmanship, most fnlly maintain the high traditions of the 
so-called "U])per House" of Congress, is the senior Senator from 
Wisconsin, John C. Sjjooner. Although he has been for prac- 
tically all of his active life intimately identified with Wisconsin, 
Iklr. Spooner is not a native of that State, l>ut of the "Hoosier 
State." He was horn at Lawrencebiirg, Dearborn Connty, In- 
diana, on January G, 1S43. He removed with his famil_v, how- 
ever, to Madison, Wisconsin, on June 1, 1859, and has ever since 
been identified with the "Badger State" in both private and 
l)ubli(- life. 

He had already recei\e(l a good school education in Indiana, 
and soon after reaching Madison he entered the Wisconsin State 
University, from which institution he was graduated with the 
baccalaureate degree in 1864. Innnediately npon leaving col- 
lege he enlisted in Company D of the Fortieth Eegiment, Wis- 
consin Volunteers, as a private soldier. Ill health compelled 
him to withdraw from the army, and he became for a time assis- 
tant State librarian. With restored health he presently reen- 
tered the army as captain of Company A, Fiftieth Wisconsin 
Volunteers, and went to Fort Eice, North Dakota, to fight In- 
dians. He was mustered out in Jidy, 1866, with the In-evet rank 
of major. Thereafter he served for a year and a half as private 
and military secretary to Governor Fairchild of Wisconsin, and 
was elevated to the rank of colonel. 

IMeantime, following his inclinations toward the legal profes- 
sion, Mr. Spooner diligently pursued the study of the law, and 

313 



314 JOHN C. SPOONER 

fitted himself for the practice thereof. Admission to practice 
at the ]mr of the State was secured in 1867, and he then became 
assistant attorney-general of the State and held that office until 
1870. In the latter year he removed from IMadison to Hudson, 
Wisconsin, and there practised law with marlied success until 
1884. In the meantime he entered politics again as member of 
the State Assembly from St. Croix County, and was a regent 
of the AVisconsin State University. 

His elevation to the United States Senate occurred in 1885, 
when he was elected to succeed Ang-us Cameron for the term 
beginning on March 5 of that year. He soon rose to a com- 
manding position on the Republican side of the Senate, being a 
hard-working chairman and member of various important com- 
Tuittees, and recognized as one of the most eloquent and effective 
orators in tlie chamber. He retained, meantime, his leadership in 
politics, and was chairman of the Wisconsin delegation to the 
Repuljlican National Convejition in 1888. He also became 
known as one of the ablest i)olitical speakers on tlie stump in 
the whole country, and his services in that capacity were in nuich 
demand in inii)ortant political campaigns. 

At the expiration of his term Senator Spooner was succeeded 
by William F. Vilas, Democrat. He received the solid vote of 
the Re])ub]icans of the Legislature for reelection, but the Demo- 
crats were in the majority. He continued, howe\er, to be the 
leader of his party in the State, and was thereaftei- chairman of 
the Wisconsin delegation to the Republican National Convention 
in 1892, and was unanimously nominated as the Republican can- 
didate for governor of Wisconsin, l)ut was defeated in that 
Democratic year. In 1893 he returned from Hudson to ]Madi- 
son and reengaged in the practice of law in the latter place. 

On January 13, 1897, Mr. Spooner was recalled to a commanding 
place in public life. On that date the Re])ublicans of tlie State 
Legislature unanimously renominated him to succeed Mr. Vilas 
in the United States Senate, and on January 27 he was elected 
for the term beginning ]\Iarch 5, 1897, receiving one hundred and 
seventeen votes, against eight for W. C. Silverthorn and two for 
Edward S. Bragg. His term of service will expire on Marcli 4, 
1903. In his second term he has resumed and even advanced 
upon the prominent place he occupied in the Senate in his first 



JOHN C. SPOONEK 315 

term, and is indisputably ranked among the leaders of that 
body. 

For twelve years Mr. Spooner was general solicdtor of the 
West Wisconsin Railroad Company and of the Chicago, St. 
Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Railroad Company. In May, 1884, 
he resigned for the reason that the company had brought action 
against II. II. Porter, David Dows, and R. P. Flower for the 
alleged illegal distribution of stock of the company amoimting 
to about $1,200,000. His relations with these men were of such 
a nature that he wished to avoid all possibility of being con- 
nected even indirectly with this suit. 

In his law practice ^Ir. Spooner has won distinction as a logi- 
cal and forcible pleader. He has hardly an equal as an orator in 
Wisconsin. Upon his advent to the Senate he was recognized 
as an alert, energetic man of affairs and a shrewd politician. 
His excellent counsel in important matters, added to his personal 
qualities, render him very popular among his associates. 




'^^W 



JOHN DIEDKK^H SPRECKELS 

JOHN DIEDRICH SPRECKELS, one of the foremost mer- 
chants of the Pacific coast, is the son of Claus and Anna D. 
Spreckels, liis father, a man of German hirth, being noted as 
the pioneer of the sugar in(histry in the Hawaiian Ish\nds 
and in Cahfornia. He was born at Charleston, Sontli Carolina, 
on August 16, 1853, and was carefully educated, at first in Oak- 
land College, California, and later in tlie Polytechnic School, 
Hanover, Germany. On leaving school he at once entered upon 
a commercial career, mider the direction of his father, with all 
of whose enterpi'ises he lias ever since been associated, besides 
conducting many of his own. 

The first important independent undertaking of Mr. Spreckels 
w^as the estal)lishment of the house now known as the J. I). 
Spreckels & Brotlier's Company, with a caj^ital of $2,000,000, to 
engage in trade l)etweeu the United States and Hawaii. Tliat 
was in 1880. The concern began business with one vessel, the 
200-ton schooner Rosdvio. Since then the firm has enlarged its 
fleet, until it now comprises a large nund)er of sailing-vessels of 
the best class and one of the finest arrays of sea-going steam- 
tugs to be found in the world. These vessels are steadily and 
actively engaged in the Hawaiian trade, in ])oth sugar and gen- 
eral merchandise. The firm does not confine its operations to 
shii)])ing, either, Init controls great sugar refineries in California, 
and acts as agent for a niimber of European houses. It has 
played a leading part in the development of trade between 
Hawaii and the United States, and in the promotion of the 
commercial interests of the Pacific coast. 

Mr. Spreckels also founded, in 1881, the Oceanic Steamship 
Company, which at fii'st chartered some vessels, and then had 

310 





'k^A 




y-^c 



^^^^.^ 



JOHN DIEDRICH SPKECKELS 317 

some of its own built, and now maintains a first-class mail and 
passenger service between San Francisco and Honolulu. A 
great extension of this company's operations was effected in 
1885. At that time the Pacific Mail Steamship Company with- 
drew from the Australian trade, whereupon Mr. Spreckels's com- 
pany purchased some of its vessels and entered upon the mail 
and passenger service, which it had abandoned. This service 
lias been continued to the present time. Mr. Spreckels has 
been president of the company since its organization, and his 
line of ships is the only one fiying the American fiag between 
San Francisco and Honolulu, Australia and New Zealand. 

With the commercial and industrial interests of California 
generally Mr. Spreckles has been intimately identified, and es- 
pecially with the interi'Sts of San Francisco and of San Diego. 
He established at the latter place in 1887 the Spreckels Brothers' 
Commercial Company, and built one of the finest wharves, coal 
depots, and warehouses on the coast, the coal-bunkers having 
capacity for fifteen thousand tons. This company, of which Mr. 
Spreckels is president, thus practically secured control of the 
shipping interests of that port. 

Another of his enterprises is the famous Coronado Beach and 
Hotel property, one of the finest winter resorts in the world, of 
which he is tbe principal owner. He is also the chief proprietor 
of the ferry systems and electric railways of San Diego, and of 
some other local enterprises. 

Mr. Spreckels is the president and active manager of the 
01\Tiipic Salt Water Company, which has an extensive system of 
mains under the streets of San Francisco and a pumping-station 
on the sea-beach, and the Lm-line Baths, in the heart of the city, 
in which small baths and a vast swimming-tank are filled with 
water pumped directl}' fi-om the open sea. He is president of 
the Beaver Hill Coal ('ompany, which supphes coal to San Fran- 
cisco from its mines in Oregon. He was one of the founders and 
builders and is now a director of the San Francisco & San 
Joaquin Valley Railroad, one of the largest enterprises ever rm- 
dertaken for the local development of California. He is the 
manager of the extensive real-estate holdings of the Spreckels 
family in San Francisco, which comprise some of the finest 
office and other buildings in the United States. He is the pro- 



318 JOHN DIEDRICH SPEECKELS 

prietor of the San Francisco " Call," one of the foremost news- 
papers of California. 

In addition to these varied and important interests, Mr. 
Spreckels is president of the Western Sugar Refining Company, 
vice-president of the Western Beet Sugar Company, the Pajaro 
Valley Raih'oad Company, and the Coronado Beach Company, 
and a director of the San Francisco & San Mateo Electric Rail- 
way Company and the Union Trust Company of San Francisco. 
He is also interested in the Hutchinson Sugar Plantation Com- 
pany and the Hakalau Plantation Company of Hawaii, and in 
nuuK^rons other euterpi'ises. 

Mr. Spreckels is an earnest Repubhcan, and has long been one 
of tlie most influential leaders of the party in California. He 
has been chairman of its State Central Committee, and in 18!)6 
was chosen delegate at large to the National Convention and 
the California member of the National Conniiittee. He has 
frequently been talked of as a candidate for high office, such as 
Governor of the State and United States Senator, but has not 
sought such distinction, and has preferred to remain a private 
citizen. 

Mr. Spreckels was married at Hoboken, New Jersey, on Octo- 
ber 27, 1877, to Miss LiUie Sieben, who has borne him fom- 
children : Grace, Lillie, John A., and Clans Spreckels. The 
family home is in San Francisco. 






^i^ic-^^^j^^ 





CHARLES ALBERT STABLER 



CHARLES ALBERT STABLER, manufacturer and finan- 
cier, is of German parentage, being the son of Gabriel 
Stadler, a ci\al engineer, and Elizabeth his wife, who lived at 
G(n-mersheim, in tlie Bavanan Palatinate. He was bom there 
on July 15, 1848, and about tlu-ce years later the family removed 
to the United States, where his home has since been made. 
The family settled in New York city, and the lad was educated 
in local schools, including public schools, the St. Nicholas 
School, the Be La Salle Institute, and the Cooper Institute. 

Gabriel Stadler had, on settling in New York, abandoned his 
former calling as a civil engineer, and opened an engraving and 
embossing establishment on Maiden Lane. In that establish- 
ment Charles All)ert Stadler l)egan his business career. Later, 
in 1870, he was employed in the brewing business, to which his 
acti\ities have ever since been largely devoted. Bown to 1879 
he was engageil in the general brewing business. Then he be- 
came connected with the firm of Meidlinger, Schmidt & Co., 
maltsters, in New York. Of that firm he in time became a 
partner. His next .step was to engage in the malting biisiness 
on his own individual accoimt, occui>ymg for this purpose the 
malt-houses on East Sixty-first Street formerly owned by 
Rosenbaum & Straus. Later he purchased the malt-house and 
elevator at the foot of East Forty-eighth Street formerly owned 
by Thomas Twedle. 

Mr. Stadler is now president of the American Malting Com- 
pany, with general offices at the foot of East Sixty-third Street. 
He is also president of the Sebastian Wagon Company, vice- 
president and a director of the Union Railway Company of New 
York, and of the Nineteenth Ward Bank of New York, and 

319 



320 CHARLES ALBERT STABLER 

vice-president and treasurer of the Sicilian Asphalt Paving 
Company. He is a member of the New York Produce Exchange. 

Of the brewing and malting industries in the United States 
Mr. Stadler has long been one of the foremost representatives. 
He was appointed by the United States Maltsters' Association 
to represent that organization before the Ways and Means Com- 
mittee of Congress and before the Tariff Commission of Congress 
on the disputed question of the tariff on barley and malt, and 
did so to tlie eminent satisfaction of the association. He was 
also chairman of the Legislature Committee of the New York 
State's Brewers' and Maltsters' Association, and in that capacity 
represented that body before various connnittees of the New 
York State Legislature on (juestions pertaining to those indus- 
tries. The esteem in which he is held by the members of the 
brewing industry at large was well shown at Cleveland, Ohio, in 
1891, when the annual convention of the American Brewers' 
Association adopted resolutions thanking him for his " eminent 
services rendered to the industry," and elected him to honorary 
membersliip in that association. 

Mr. Stadler was appointed a school inspector in New York 
city l)y Mayor Smith Ely. He was elected to the State Senate 
of New York as a Democrat in 1888, and served continuously 
for four years, tilling ])laces on the Insurance, Commerce and 
Navigation, Internal ^Ufairs, and other committees. He was also 
a member of the State Democratic Executive Committee for five 
years. He joined the Fifty-fifth Regiment of the National 
Guard of New York, and was honorably discharged from it as 
sergeant-major. At the present time he is a captain of the Old 
Guard. 

IVtr. Stadler is a member of the boards of various charitable 
institutions, hospitals, etc., and of numerous clubs, including the 
Maidiattan, Democratic, Lotus, Liederkranz, Arion, Athletic, and 
\Va-^Va-Yanda. 

In 18GG Mr. Stadler was married to Josephine Contis, who 
bore him seven children: Ennna, Annie, Charles, Josephine, 
Mary, Gertrude, and Elsie. After her death he was again mar- 
ried, in 1889, to Pauline Roesicka of Brooklyn, New York. 



JAMES STILLMAN 



JAMES STILLMAN was born ou June 9, 1850, the son of 
Cbai-les Stillman and Elizabeth Groodrich Stilhnan, who were 
both natives of Connecticut, where their Enghsh ancestors 
settled about the middle of the seventeenth century. His early 
education was at Hartford, Connecticut, where his parents then 
resided, and afterward at the Churchill School at Sing Sing, 
New York. At tlie age of eighteen he became a clerk in the 
office of Smith, Woodward & Stillman, cotton merchants of 
New York, in which firm his father had long been interested. 
Within two years he was admitted to full partnership in the 
'•eorganized firm of ^Voodward & Stilhnan. Since the death of 
Mr. Woodward, in 1899, Mr. Stillman has been at the head of 
the firm. Its credit has always been of the highest, and its 
capital far in excess of the requirements of its large business. 

The relations formerly existing between this firm and the 
City Bank of New York In'ought Mr. Stillman into close rela- 
tions with Moses Taylor, the great merchant and president of 
that bank. On the death of Mr. Taylor, in 1882, his son-in-law, 
Percy R. Pyne, was elected president of the bank, then known, 
as the National City Bank. Upon his retirement, in 1891, Mr. 
Stillman, then the youngest member of the board of directors of 
that bank, was elected and has ever since continued its presi- 
dent. When he assumed the- presidency of the bank, its capital 
was $1,000,000, its surplus about $2,412,000, and its average 
deposits were about $12,000,000. In the early part of 1900, 
$9,000,000 of new capital was subscribed to the bank, thus mak- 
ing its capital stock $10,000,000, and its surplus was over $5,000,- 
000. Its average deposits had been increased to about $120,000,- 
000. This bank is to-day beyond question the greatest in the 



321 



322 JAMES STILLMAN 

United States, and bids fair to become the great financial com- 
petitor of the Bank of England in controlling large aggregations 
of capital for tlie purpose of carrjang on the great enterprises of 
the world. During the last year, the transactions in foreign 
exchange, for which Mr. Stillman has created a special depart- 
ment in his bank, have involved the active employment of more 
money than is used by the Bank of Kngland, and, in fact, by any 
bank in the world. 

This bank has not only kept on hand a large amount of cash 
in excess of its legal reserve, but kept almost the whole of it in 
actual gold or gold certificates. It has thus been enabled at 
various times to subscribe to a larger portion of government 
loans than any other bank or syndicate of bankers in the coun- 
try, and actually to pay for its subscriptions in the yellow 
metal. It has also been able to give the necessary security for 
deposits from the United States government to very large 
amounts. Thus in November, 1897, when tlie government, in 
making a settlement of the debt due it from the Union Pacific 
Raih-oad Company, decided to deposit the amount in New York 
banks and thus get it into circulation, Mr. Stillman promptly 
deposited with the Treasury Dei:»artment ^^^50.000,000 of United 
States bonds and securities, and thus gained for the City Bank 
the privilege and prestige of being designated as chief depositary 
and (hstributiug agent for the millions thus paid over. A similar 
instance, tliough not quite to the same extent, occurred in De- 
cember, 1899, upon the temporary diversion of the internal 
revenue receipts from the Sub-Treasury to the l)anks. 

Mr. Stillman is also president of the Second National Bank, 
and one of the leading directors of the Hanover National Bank 
and the Bank of the Metropolis. He is a tnistee and member 
of the executive committee of the United States Trust Company, 
the Farmers' Loan and Trust Company, and the New York 
Security and Trust Company; and a director of the Central 
Realty Bond and Trust Company, of the American Surety Com- 
pany, the Bowery Sa\4ngs Bank, and the Fifth Avenue Safe 
Deposit Company. He is a director of the Union Pacific, 
Nortliern Pacific, Baltimore and Ohio, Chicago and Northwest- 
ern, and Delaware, Lackawanna and Western, and other leading 
railroads. He has been a member of numerous syndicates, one 



JAMES STILLMAN 323 

of the latest of which was the Harriman Syndicate, which pur- 
chased the Chicago and Alton Raih-oad. He is largely inter- 
ested in the ConsoHdated Glas Company of New York, of which 
he has been a trustee for many years, and has recently been one 
of the most important factors in bringing about a combination 
of all the gas and electric Hght interests in the city of New York. 
He is also a director of the Western Union Telegraph Company. 

With all his varied interests, lie has always contrived to find 
leisure for outdoor recreation. Since 1874 he has been a mem- 
ber of the New York Yacht Club, and his victorious sails have 
brought him many trophies. He has also taken great interest 
in farming and cattle-breeding, and has on his large estate at 
Cornwall-on-Hudson one of the finest herds of Jerseys in the 
United States. He was one of the founders and is still an active 
member of the organization known as the " New York Farmers." 
He depends for healthful exercise upon his bicycle. He is a 
great reader and imich devoted to art and music, and is a skilled 
amateur [)hotograi)lier. 

His winter residence is at No. 7 East Fortieth Street, New 
York city, and his family divide their time in summer between 
his beautiful residences at Newport and Cornwall-on-Hudson. 
Among the many clubs of which he is a member are the Union, 
Union League, Metropolitan, Reform, Lawyers', Century, and 
the Turf and Field. He is also a member of the Tuxedo Club 
and of the Washington Metropolitan Club. 

His private charities are numerous and varied. His latest 
act of public generosity consists of the gift of a hundred 
thousand dollars to Harvard University for the erection of an 
infirmary for students, and an endowment for defraying the ex- 
penses of its maintenance. 




ARTHUR EDWARD STILWELL 

A^IONd the enterprising men which tlie State of New York 
J^\- has given to the great business of raih-oading in the coun- 
try at largo, a pi'ominent rank is due to at least one son of west- 
ern New York iState and of the fanioiis "Flower City" on the 
lower reaches of the Genesee River. It was at Rochester, New 
York, that Charles H. Stilwell and his wife, Mary P. Stilwell, 
lived at the middle of the century now closing, and it was there 
that their son, Arthur Edward Stilwell, was l)C)rn, on October 21, 
1859. They were both, l)y the way, of English descent, like so 
many others of the worthiest and most substantial residents of 
that part of the State. 

Ai'thur Edward Stilwell received bis education in the excellent 
public schools of his native city, and did not have opportunity 
to go beyond them for book-learning. Instead, he set out, before 
reaching his majority, to seek his fortune in practical business 
enterpiise in the West. He had already, diu'ing his school-days, 
learned the printer's trade, in Rochester. After leaving home 
his first ventm-e was as an employee in a printing-office in Kansas 
City, Missouri. He did not continue long in this business, but 
in 1880 went to Chicago, as a special agent of the Travelers' 
Insurance Company in Illinois. The foUo^^ang year he went to 
Rhode Island for the same ccmipany. 

Returning to Kansas City in 188G, he formed the Missouri, 
Kansas and Texas Trust Company, which was almost the only 
large tioist company west of Chicago that lived through the 
panic of 1893. The largest imdertaking of the company Avas the 
financing of the Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad, 
which cost over twenty-tlu'ce million dollars. Mr. Stilwell is 
president of the road. 

324 




ri4A^CJ>^^^y'^ 





AKTHUR EDWARD STILWELL 325 

The Kansas City, Pittsburg and Gulf Railroad gi-ewout of the 
old Kansas (Jity, Nevada and Fort Smith line, and is a realization 
of a scheme which has been talked of for years, and unsuccess- 
fully attempted many times, namely, a short hne between Kansas 
City and the Gulf of Mexico. The Kansas City and Fort Smith 
was projected to reach the Gulf, but only a short part of it was 
linished. Mr. Stilwell's company took up the enterprise, and 
promoted it to its completion, through a long series of trials and 
discouragements. Raih-oad-building in the West ceased almost 
altogether during the troulilous years of 1892 and 1893, but Mr. 
Stilwell, by sheer persistence and energy, succeeded in obtaining 
capital for his enterpi-ise when none of his associates believed it 
possible to do so. At the most critical point of the road's for- 
tunes he went to Holland, where certain rich Dutch bankers 
furnished him witli ample funds, and on September 11, 1897, 
the first through train went over the line to the Gulf. The new 
Hne met with much opposition from some of the larger raih-oads, 
and its history up to tlie present has been rather exciting. The 
export trade of the road depends on the securing of deep water 
at its Gulf terminal, Port Arthur, Texas, a canal eight miles long 
having been built for that purpose. Every obstacle was thrown 
in the way of the project, and the canal was finished only in 
March, 1899. Meanwhile the company was deprived of terminal 
facilities for over a year, and the damage done its business was 
so great that it was found necessary to reorganize the company 
in order to avoid serious financial loss. A friendly receivership 
was appointed in April, 1899, and there is every prospect of an 
arrangement of all difficulties at an early date. 

Mr. Stilwell is well kno-oii in the club w-orld, both East and 
West. He is a member of tlie Lawyers' Club of New York, the 
Algonquin of Boston, the Ai-t Club of Philadelphia, the Kansas 
City Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and the Union League and 
Chicago clubs of Chicago. 




JOSEPH SUYDAM STOIT 



JOSEPH SUYDAM STOUT, a promiueut bauker aud broker 
of New York city, is a son of the late Andrew Varick Stout, 
who was born in New York, was a teacher and principal in the 
public schools, became a jobber in the boot and shoe trade, and 
finally founded the Shoe and Leather National Bank, and was 
its president down to his death in 1883. Andrew A'arick Stout 
married Alnm-a Hanks, a native of Pawlet, Vermont, and to 
them Joseph Suydam Stout was boi-n at their home on Ridge 
Street, New York, on December 27, 1846. 

Mr. Stout went in his boyhood to a boarding-school at Ash- 
land, New York, for a term of three years and a half, prepara- 
tory to college. Then, at the age of fifteen years, he entered the 
College of the City of New York, and remained there for two 
years, after which he withdrew from scholastic life and began 
his career in the world of finance. His first engagement was as 
a clerk in his father's bank, the Shoe and Leather Bank of New 
York. His work there was in the capacity of assistant to the 
receiving teller, which he performed for two years. Tlien he 
became assistant to the paying teller for a])out two years. In 18GG 
he was appointed to be assistant cashier of the bank, his especial 
duties being the loaning of the bank's funds in Wall Street. 
During his incumbency of this place he was made loan clerk of 
the Tenth National Bank, which was then controlled by the 
Shoe and Leather Bank, and the money of the two banks loaned 
througli him amounted at one time to between four and five 
million dollars. It is a fact of record that not one dollar was 
ever lost by either of the banks through any act of his, although 
during his connection with them he had the handhng and dispo- 
sition of hundreds of millions of dollars. 



■i-26 





/ 




<£7^it_ 



JOSEPH SUYDAM STOUT 327 

His acquaintance with Wall Street, formed through his bank- 
ing work, led Mr. Stout in 1868 to become a broker as a partner 
of W. (t. Wiley, and in May, 1869, he resigned his connection 
with the banks in order to devote all his attention to Wall Street 
wcjrk. The next year he became a partner in the firm of Stout 
& Dickinson ; in 1872 he organized the new fii-m of Ewell, Stout 
& Co.; and in 1876 h(> organized the firm of Stout & Co., of 
which he is still the head. He became a member of the New 
York Stock Exchange by purchase of a seat in May, 1872. 

Mr. Stout is a member of the Building Committee of the new 
Stock Exchange Building. He is connected with the Shoe and 
Leatlun- Bank, the New York Mutual Gas Light Company, and 
the American Bank Note Company, and is a member of the 
Produce Exchange and one of the governors of the Stock Ex- 
change. He is also a member of the New York Chamber of 
Commerce. 

Apart from lousiness affairs, Mr. Stout is a member of the 
Madison Avenue Methodist Episcopal Chin-ch, is a member and 
treasurer of the Board of Education of the Methodist Episcopal 
Church, and is officially (-onnected with the New York Church 
Extension and Missionary Society of that chui'ch, the Methodist 
Episcopal Hospital of Brooklyn, the Drew Theological Seminary 
at Madison, New .Tersely, and Wesleyan University at Middle- 
town, Connecticut. His social affiliations include membership 
in tlie Metropolitan Club, the Union League Club, and the New 
England Society, of New York. 

He was married in New York, on April 21, 1868, to Miss Julia 
Frances Purdy, and has four* children : Newton E. Stout, who is 
manied to Jane E. Towle ; Andrew V. Stout, who is married to 
Ethel G. Doniinick ; Joseph S. Stout, Jr.; and Arthur P. Stout. 




WILLIAM LEWIS STOW 

"TTTILLIxVM LEWIS STOW, stock-broker and financier, is 
T T descended from several families long settled in this 
country. The Stow family is descended from Lord Blandy 
Stow, who was prominent in the time of James I. John and 
Thomas Stow, brothers, were members of the Assembly of the 
BeiTnuda Islands in 1673. One of their sisters married a 
Pierrepont, and another married Governor Le ^Montaigne of 
Bermuda. The Kev. Samuel Stow, son of John Stow, was one 
of the most prominent men in that colony in the time of Charles 
1. Stephen Stow, son of Samuel Stow, was a captain of Con- 
necticut troops, and is mentioned in history as a gallant soldier 
and devoted patriot. He lived at Milford, Connecticut, in a 
famous liouse l)earing the date 1G83. He had a grandson also 
named Stephen Stow, who married Clarissa Rice, a descendant 
of the family of Elihu Yale, founder of Yale University. To 
Stephen and Clarissa Stow was born a son named George W. 
Stow, who 1>ecame a merchant in New York, who married Susan 
Anna Fairchild, and who was the father of the subject of this 
sketch. 

Miss Fairchild was a daughter of Benjamin Fairchild and a 
direct descendant of Thomas Fairchild, who came to this country 
in 1G39, purchased all of Connecticut west of New Haven, and 
was the first person in the colony vested with civil authority by 
royal patent. Thomas Fairchild mairied a sister of Lord Saye 
and Sele, after whom the town of Saybrook, Connecticut, was 
named. The Fairchilds, by the way, were Tories during the 
Revolution. Benjamin Fairchild, above named, the grandfather 
of Mr. Stow, man-ied a daughter of Lieutenant Thomas Ehel- 
wood and his wife, Susanna Barlow. The Barlow family came 

328 



WILLIAM LEWIS STOW 329 

from England in 1620 and settled in Connecticut, and produced 
in later generations such men as S. L. M. Barlow, John and 
William Tecumseh Sherman, and Vicar-General Preston. Lieu- 
tenant Ehelwood was an officer of the ship AlUance, whose cap- 
tain, Landais, acted so strangely toward his commander, John 
Paul Jones, in the famous hattle of Flamborough Head in 1799. 

Of sucli ancestry Wilham Lewis Stow, son of George W. and 
Susan Fairchild Stow, was born, in New York, on October 20, 
1855. He was educated at the well-known academy at Newton, 
New Jersey, for five years, and afterward at Langeais, France, 
On returning to the United States he was led by^his taste and 
talent into Wall Street, where for several years he was engaged 
in the ollice of Edmund Clarence Stedman, the eminent man of 
letters as well as banker and l)roker. 

Mr. Stow became a member of the New York Stock Exchange 
in 1882, and has since continued business as a successful operator 
in the financial woi-ld. In addition to his activities in the Stock 
Exchange and in the general financial operations of Wall Street, 
he is connected with a nmnber of large mining companies in 
Mexico, and is a member of the Executive Committee of the 
Mexican Central Railway Company. 

He has neither held nor sought pohtieal office of any kind. 
He is a member of several leading clubs in and about New York, 
including the Manhattan, Lambs', Racquet, New York Athletic, 
New York Yacht, Midday, Larchmont Yacht, and Meadowbrook, 

Mr. Stow remains unmanned. 




FRANK KNIGHT STURGIS 



F 



RANK KNIGHT STURGIS, banker, is a New-Yorker of 
Massachusetts parentage and English ancestry. His father 
was William Sturgis of Boston, a merchant in Boston, Loudon, 
and New Yoi*k, and through him he is descended from Edward 
Sturgis of Noi-thamptoushire, England, who in 1632 settled at 
Yarmouth, Massachusetts. In the latter place the family has 
resided, in part, to the present day. ^Ir. Sturgis's mother was, 
before her marriage, Elizabeth Knight Hinckley of Hingham, 
Massachusetts, and came from a family which has been settled 
for many generations at Yarmouth, Barnstable, and adjoining 
towns, and which gave to New England history a noteworthy 
ligm-e in the person of Thomas Hinckley, Governor of Cape Cod 
Colony. 

Frank Knight Sturgis was born in New York city on Sep- 
tember 19, 1S4T, and received his early education in the local 
public schools. For one term he attended the West Newton, 
Massachusetts, academy, and at fifteen years of age left school 
for business life. 

He returned at once to New York city, and at the age of 
sixteen years became a clerk in the employ of the Home In- 
siu-ance Company. That was in 1863. Three months after his 
entry into the otlic(^ he left it to become cashier in the counting 
house of the mercantile firm of Lewis Roberts & Co. of New 
York. There he remained until January, 1868, when he made 
another change and obtained a clerkshi]) in the banking house 
of Scott, Capron & Co. of New York. 

Since the latter date Mr. Stm-gis has devoted his attention 
chiefly to banking. He became a member of the firm of Capron, 
Strong & Co. (successors to Scott, Capron & Co.) in 1869, and 

330 



FRANK KNIGHT STURGIS 331 

two years later was a partner in the latter firm's si;ceessor, Scott, 
Strong & Co. In 1875 the name was again changed to that of 
Work, Strong & Co., and finally, in 1896, to its present form of 
Strong, Stm-gis & Co. 

In addition to being a partner in this firm, Mr. Sturgis is 
president and a diri'ctor of the Madison Square Company, and ex- 
president (1892-93) and now a governor of the New York Stock 
Exchange and chainnan of its Law Committee, vice-president of 
the Standard Trust Company, and a director of the New Amster- 
dam National Bank, of the Bank of the State of New York, of 
the Westing-house Securities Company, and of the Standard 
Safe Deposit Vaults Company. 

He is a member of many social organizations, including the 
Westchester and Newport Racing associations, the Jockey and 
the Coney Island Jockey chdjs, the New York and the Larch- 
mont Yacht clubs, the Turf and Field and the Coaching clubs, 
the Centmy Association, the New England Society, and the 
Union, Metropolitan, Knickerbocker, Strollers', Midday, and 
other clubs. 

Mr. Sturgis was nuuried, on October 16, 1872, to Miss Flor- 
ence Lydig of New York, of one of the oldest and most respected 
Knickerbocker families of that city. 




TALBOT J. TAYLOR 



riWLBOT J. TAYLOR, the head of the well-knowii Wall 
i Street commission lioiise of Talbot J. Taylor & Co., was 
])orn iu Baltimore, Mary laud, on April 25, 18G5, and is a de- 
scendant of one of the oldest and most prominent Southern 
families. His childhood was spent in the little village of 
Catonsville, a suburl) where a number of Baltimore's leading 
citizens make theu" home. 

After receiving an academic education, Mr. Taylor fitted him- 
self for a business career by a long apprenticeship in the banking 
houses of Baltimore. At first he was connected with the old 
fu-m of C. L-vin Dunn & Co. ; and afterward he was engaged iu 
the banking house of McKim & Co., where he occupied various 
positions which gave him valuable financial training. Still 
later he accepted a position in the National Bank of Baltimore, 
one of the oldest and best-known banks in the South. Through 
these experiences ]\Ir. Taylor enjoyed and improved ample 
opportunity to famiUarize himself with the best business 
methods in the world of finance. After this long training he 
began business in Baltimore on his own account, under the firm- 
name of Talbot J. Taylor & Co. This undertaking succeeded 
from tlie start, ; but IMr. Taylor soon recognized the comparative 
naiTOwness of his surroundings in Baltimore, and was naturally 
attracted to the metropolis and financial center of the country. 
Accordingly in 1893 he purchased a seat on the New York 
Stock Exchange, and then tunied over his Baltimore business to 
his brothers, who constituted the firm of Robert Taylor & Co. 

After a few years as a broker on the floor of the New York 
Stock Exchange, Mr. Taylor organized the present firm of Tal- 
bot J. Taylor & Co., which consists of himself, James Black- 

33L' 




2.JX^( ^ I- 



TALBOT J. TAYLOR 333 

stone Taylor, and Foxhall Keene. Prior to this he had married 
Miss Jessica Keene, the only daughter of James R. Keene and 
sister of Foxhall Keene. Mr. James R. Keene's Wall Street 
headquarters, it may be added, are with Messrs. Talbot J. Tay- 
lor & Co. 

Mr. Taylor has already made for himself a distinguished 
name in the New York Stock Exchange as a man of energy and 
acumen. From its very start the pi-eseut firm took a command- 
ing position among the foremost of Wall Street commission 
houses, representing many important cheuts, and its present 
prestige is due to its natural development. The associates of 
the fiiTu now include some of the greatest interests of the 
Street, while Mr. Taylor personally has represented some of the 
largest institutions in the country in their most important un- 
dertakings. In the celebrated incidents which culminated in the 
historic Northern Pacific corner of May, 1901, Mr. Taylor was 
consjucuous, executing orders which prior to that time would 
have been deemed incredil)ly large, and executing them with the 
most successful tact and profitable results. 

Apart from business life, Mr. Taylor is an ardent sportsman 
and enthusiastic automobihst, being one of the charter members 
of the Automobile Club. He spends much of his time at his 
beautiful country place at Cedarhurst, Long Island, and is a 
believer in the modern cult of as much outdoor hfe as possible. 
His club-memberships include the Union, Racquet, Meadowbrook 
Hunt, Rockaway Hunt, Automobile, and Cedarhurst, of New 
York, and the Maryland Club of Baltimore. 



ejP 




(ii:OR(iK KRAMER THOMPSON 



C GEORGE KRAMER THOMPSON, the well-known archi- 
X teet of New York city, is a descondnnt of some of the 
earliest settlers of this country. His tlrst American progenitor 
was Thomas Minor, who came from England in 1G3(), settled in 
Virginia, and mamed there Frances Palmer. Thence the direct 
line of descent runs through Thomas ]Minor H, Clement Minor, 
William Minor, Stephen Minor of Worcester, Virginia, John 
Minor, and Abia Minor. A daughter of the last-named, Sophia, 
maiTied John H. Thompson, father of the subject of this sketch. 

George Kramer Thompson was born at Dubuque, Iowa, on 
October 15, 1859, and at the age of fifteen entered the Chattock 
Militaiy Academy, intending to prepan^ himself for the archi- 
tectural profession. In 187G he entered Franklin and Marshall 
Academy at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and two years later entered 
the office of Frederick C. Withers, a well-known architect in New 
York city. ^Iv. Withers's office was in the old building at Rec- 
tor Street and Broadway, on the exact site of which ]\Ir. Thomp- 
son's firm since (189G) erected the Empire Building, one of the 
finest office buildings in the city. Mr. Thompson remained with 
Mr. Withers as a student until 1882, meantime being intrusted 
witli the supervision of much important work. 

In 1883 Mr. Thompson opened an office of his own in New 
York with a branch in St. Louis, and soon acquired a large and 
varied patronage. In 1890 he did some work for the Manhattan 
Life Insurance Company which led to his being invited to com- 
pete for the erection of the Manhattan Life Insurance Company's 
building at No. GG Broadway, in which competition he was suc- 
cessful, and in 1893 formed the firm of Kimball & Thompson, 
whose first work was the construction of that building, the pio- 



3.34 



GEORGE KRAMER THOMPSON 335 

neer of its kind. To solve tlie problem of sustaining the vast 
weight of so tall a building upon so small an area, Mr. Thomi»- 
son conceived the idea of employing pneumatic caisson work to 
reach bed-rock, as had hitherto been done only in case of bridge- 
piers, etc. The method proved highly successful, and the same 
system has since been followed in the construction of numerous 
other buildings. 

Mr. Thompson's firm afterward erected the magnificent stores 
of B. Altman & Co. and the magnificent Empire Building, ah-eady 
mentioned, and enlarged and remodeled the Standard Oil Com- 
])any's building. 

In 18!)8 tlie above-mentioned fii'm was dissolved, and Mr. 
Thompson has since continued the practice of his profession in 
the old ofiices of the firm with marked success. 

Other works of note for which Mr. Thompson has been archi- 
tect are the erection of a warehouse and office building for ex- 
Postmaster Dayton, factories of the Hoyt Metal Company at St. 
Louis, Missouri, and residences for Francis Wilson, the Albert 
C. Bostwick estate, Augustus Thomas, Daniel O'Day, the latter 
including the development of twenty-five acres of ground, Peter 
Fislicr, the Huguenot Lodge Chambers, and many private estates 
thi'oughout the country. 

Mr. Thompson's latest -work is the addition to the Manhattan 
Life Insurance Company's building at No. 66 Broadway, that 
work now being under contract. 

He has become as well known in social as in professional life 
in New York, and is a member of the Republican Club of the 
city of New York, the Twilight Club, the Royal Arcanum, 
Huguenot Lodge Free and Accepted Masons, Royal Arch Masons, 
Bethlehem Commandery of Knights Templar, the Architectural 
League, the American Art Society, and the National Sculpture 
Society. 

He was married, in 1886, to Miss Harriet H. Henion, a de- 
scendant of one of the oldest families of Pennsylvania. 



/ 



FRANCIS J. TORKANCE 

I;j^RANCIS J. TORRANCE, one of the heads of the world's 
greatest factory of enameled ironware for plumbers' work, 
is of the North-of-Ireland parentage. His father, Francis Tor- 
rance, and his mother, formerly Jane Waddell, came to this coun- 
try before the middle of the century, and settled at Pittsburg, 
Pennsylvania. There Francis Torrance was for some time 
engaged in the "forwarding business" with '' Leitch's Line" 
so called, oi)erating lines of canal-boats before the general intro- 
duction of raih'oad transportation. After that he was engaged 
in steamboat enterprises, and for thirty years was the agent and 
manager of the Schenley estate in Pittsl)urg and Allegheny 
city. In 1875, with James W. Aruott, he established the Stau- 
dai'd Manufacturing Company, and was president thereof until 
his death in the following year. Mrs. Francis Torrance, mother 
of the subject of this sketch, is still living. 

Francis J. Torrance was born at Allegheny city, Pennsylvania, 
on June 27, 1859, and was educated in tbe ])ublic schools of that 
place and in the Western University of Pennsylvania at Pitts- 
burg. At the age of sixteen he left school to enter the employ- 
ment of the Standai'd ^Manufacturing Company as an office-boy 
and clerk. The company in 1882 began the making of plumbers' 
enamt4ed ironware, and he was ]>ut in charge of that department. 
His natural aptitude for mechanics enabled him to improve 
and develop the specialties to which he devoted his attention, 
and the result is that at the [)resent time the company is the 
largest producer in the world of enameled-iron bath-tubs and 
similar goods. The sale of the company's products is made 
thi'ough Mr. Torrance's offices at Pittsl)urg, Louisville, Chicago, 
New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Buffalo, Montreal, San 

336 





'iceh Q.^(^'^~nzcc<JO 






FBANCIS J. TORRANCE 337 

Francisco, London, Paris, Frankfort, Melbourne, Sydney, Ham- 
burg, Buenos Aires, and Moscow. 

On January 1, 1900, the Standard Manufacturing Company 
was consolidated with a number of other plants engaged in 
smaller lines, forming the Standard Sanitary Manufacturing 
Company, capitalized at five milhon dollars, fully paid up. 

Mr. Torrance was elected vice-president of the company and 
chairman of the Executive Committee. In 1894 Mr. Torrance, 
in company with Arthur Kennedy, built the Washington Electric 
Street Railway from Washington, Pennsylvania, to Lylendale, 
one of the best railways of its size in that State. In 1898 with 
the same partner he built a road in Indiana, bujdng and rebuild- 
ing five other lines and making one of the finest traction properties 
in this country. 

Mr. Torrance became treasurer of the Standard Manufacturing 
Company in 188G, upon the death of his father. He is now 
also first vice-president of the Standard Sanitary Manufactur- 
ing Company, trea.surer of the T. H. Nevin Company (the Pio- 
neer Lead Works), president of the Washington (Pennsylvania) 
Street Railway Company, the Pittsburg Natatorium Company, 
the Western Pennsylvania Exposition Company, the Mononga- 
hela and Ohio River Transportation Company, the Indiana Rail- 
way Company, and the Alloy Smelting Company of Niagara Falls, 
New York. 

A Republican in politics, Mr. Torrance represented his Con- 
gressional district as a delegate to the Republican National Con- 
vention of 1892, and the State as delegate at large in 1896. He 
has served the public as president of the Select Council of Alle- 
gheny city, and as Commissioner of Pubhc Charities since 1892, 
being reappointed to the latter place for three terms. 

He is a member of the Duquesne, Press, Tariff, and Americus 
clubs of Pittsbm-g, the Manufacturers' Club of Philadelphia, the 
Indiana Club of South Bend, Indiana, and the Fulton Club of 
New York. He is a man of pronounced hterary tastes, and is 
reputed to have one of the finest private libraries in western 
Pennsylvania. He was married at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in 
1884, to Miss Mary R. Dibert, daughter of David Dibert, a 
retired merchant of that place, who has borne to him one 
daughter. 



JAMES J. TOWNSEND 

JAIVIES J. TOWNSEXD, who for some years has been 
prominent among the younger business men and political 
leaders of Chicago, and also well known in New York and 
elsewhere, is a native of Lima, Delaware County, Pennsylvania, 
where he was born on September 18, 1862. His father was 
John Townsend, and his mother's maiden name was Margaret 
Gallagher. His family was in modest circumstances, and his 
education was limited to the advantages offered by the public 
school at Lima, of which, however, he made the best use and 
thus attained a good degree of academic cultm-e. His father 
was a blacksmith by trade, and the boy was at first dra^^^^ 
toward the same calling. He worked for some years in his 
father's shops, and acquired a thorough knowledge of the busi- 
ness. Before attaining his majonty, on March 4, 1881, he left 
his father's shops and went to Chicago, where he engaged in the 
business on his own account and for ten years conducted it with 
mai-ked success. 

His mind had for some time, however, been fixed upon another 
oceupation. and in 1891 he was enabled to put his plans into 
execution. In that year he purchased a membership in the 
Chicago Stock Exchange and opened an office at No. 175 Dear- 
boi-n Street, Chicago, where he conducted a general brokei-age 
business. There he enjoyed much success, which was continued 
and increased after his removal to his present offices, No. 116 
]ja Salle Street. He is now also a member of the Chicago Board 
of Trade and of the New York Stock Exchange. 

For a number of years Mr. Townsend has been active in the 
affairs of the Democratic party in Illinois. In 1890 he was 
elected a member of the House of Representatives in the Illinois 

338 





7^J/?<t^^Zj^ 




JAMES J. TOWNSEND 3,39 

Legislatm'c, and in the ensuing contest for tae United States 
senatorship he cast his vote for General John M. Palmer. In 
1894 Mr. Townsend was appointed a member of the West Park 
Board of Commissioners, and held the place for two years, 
resigning it voluntai-ily in 1896. 

Mr. Townsend is a leading member of a number of social 
organizations in Chicago, among which may be mentioned the 
Illinois, Chicago Athletic, Washington Park, and Eagle River 
Fishing clubs. 

He returned to the scenes of his childhood for a wife, and was 
nuin-ied at Chester, Pennsylvania, on April 25, 1897, to Miss 
Margaret Deering, daughter of Joseph Deeriug. 




GEORGE Ainill R TREADWELL 

C^ KORGE ARTHUR TREADWELL, the emineTit metallur- 
J gist, and a natui'alist who has boon closely identified with 
the development of the eopper-niinintj industry in America, is 
descended from Thomas Treadwell, who came from Enj^land in 
1G35 and settled at Ipswich, Massachusetts, and from a succeed- 
ing line of ancestors, all of whom lived in New England. His 
father, Thomas H. Treadwell, was at first a farmei* at Garland, 
Maine, later a merchant at Bangor, and for the last twenty-two 
years of his life a successful merchant of New York and Brook- 
lyn. His mother's maiden name was Martha Ann Emery, and 
she was a native of Hampden, Maine. It may be added that 
his lm)ther John B. Treadwell was the pioneer developer of the 
oil-lields of California, and that his cousins John and James 
Treadwell gave their name to the gi-eat Treadwell Mine of 
Alaska. 

The subject of this sketch was bom at Bangor, ]\rainc, on 
^Larch (I, 1837. He was educated at the Hampden Academy in 
Maine, and afterward studied mineralogy, metallurgy, and chem- 
istry under the illustrious Dr. John W. Draper of the University 
of the City of New York. He came to New York with his father's 
family in 1852, and was for a time a clerk in his father's office. 
Then for some years he was connected with the Metropolitan 
Bank. During these years he was diligently studying luider Dr. 
Draper, and was cultivating a friendship, which proved lifelong, 
with Professors James D. Dana and Benjamin Silliman of Yale 
College. 

His connection with the copper industry began in 1858, when, 
at the request of his father, who was considering an investment 
in them, he went to Michigan to examine the Lake Superior 

340 



r 




A^ 




^ . .^-/^-^^^.-^ 



GEORGE ARTHUR TREADWELL 341 

copper-minos, and made a thoroiigb investigation of the whole 
field. Three years later he was advised by Professor SiDiman 
to "go West and look for copper, for copper is the coming 
metal." And Professor Dana added : " Yes ; but try to find copper 
with a lot of gold in it." He acted upon their advice and went 
to Cahfomia. He did not find much copper there, though it 
has since been discovered, so he turned his attention to gold- 
mining, and also operated successfully in the silver-fields of Utah 
and Nevada. Thus he spent his time until 1878. In that year 
he became superintendent of the famous Vulture Mine in Ari- 
zona, and there built an eighty-stamp mill, then the largest in 
the world. Before that time fifty stamps were the most any 
mill could boast ; but now the chief mill at the Treadwell Mine 
in Alaska has six hundred. Although the ore of the Vultm-e 
Mine was of very low grade, he operated it at a fine profit. 

In Arizona, in 1882, lie found that copper for which he had so 
long been searching in the United Verde Mine. This mine had 
been discovered by others, who did not reahze its value and 
could not develop it. It remained for Mr. Treadwell to open up 
to the world its marvelous riches. At the beginning he secured 
for his friends many shares of stock at a dollar a share. The 
par value is $10, and the market value of it has in recent years 
been $;}00 a share. The ])riucipal ownership of the property 
finally passed into the hands of William A. Clark, now United 
States Senator from Montana. Then, leaving United VeruC to 
Mr. Clark, Mr. Treadwell secured a vast tract of land near by, 
comprising what he beheves to be the richest part of the copper 
belt, and upon it organized a company of his owri, the George 
A. Treadwell Mining Company. Meantime he was attracted by 
the prospects of copper-mining in Mexico just over the border, 
and organized the (ireene Consolidated Copper Company in 
northern Sonora. He also brought to pubhc attention the San 
Luis mines at Durango, Mexico. 

Mr. Treadwell's success as a practical mineralogist and metal- 
lurgist led to his appointment as lecturer on assaying and met- 
allurgy in the Dexter School of Mines in London, England, and 
his next three years were consequently spent upon the other side 
of the ocean. From that engagement he derives his title to be 
called Professor Treadwell. He was at that time the first to 



342 (iEOKGE AUTHLK TKEADWELL 

introduce fire-assaying into Europe, all assaying there having 
formerly been done l)y the tedious chemical wet ])rocess. 

Professor Treadwell has also attained much prominence as a 
naturalist. Since boyhood he has been a close student of the 
various forms of animal life, and for many years has been a close 
friend and co-laborer of the distinguished British naturalist Sir 
John Lu))bock. He was the discoverer in Arizona, in 1878, of 
the Gila monster, that hideous poisonous lizard which is found 
nowhere else in the world than in the extreme southwest of the 
United States and northwest of Mexico. He sent specimens of 
it to all the i)rincipal museimis of the world as examples of the 
last surviving s[)ecies of tlu' Jurassic period. Professor Tread- 
Avell also found in Arizona a new species of rattlesnake, and sent 
specimens to all parts of the world througli the mails, although 
that was contrary to the postal laws. One of the reptiles got 
loose in the New York Post Office, created a panic there, and led 
to an attempt to arrest Professor Treadwt'll. But as he was out 
in the Arizona desert, four hundred miles from civilization, amid 
rattlesnakes, cacti, and Apaches, the writ was not served, and 
the case was compromised on his promise to send no more Uve 
snakes through the mails. 

He was married, in 1857, to Miss Maiy Kliza (rardner. Of his 
five living children, the three sons, Erwin D., Malcolm M., and 
Herbert, are .successful miners, the first-named and eldest being 
superintendent of the George A. Treadwell Mining Company, 
above mentioned. Professor Treadwell has now retired from the 
strenuous life of the mining-camj), Init is as active as ever in the 
direction of the various mining properties in which he is in- 
terested. He makes his home in New York at the Waldorf- 
Astoria Hotel, and has his offices at No. 27 William Street, 









^Vl^.^c^^^^^^'^ . 



WILLIAM H. TRUESDALE 

AMONG the great railroad systems of the United States, which 
J\- are the greatest in the world, a conspicuous place has long 
been occupied by the Delaware, Lackawanna & Western. It is 
one of the older roads, and for many years has been notably 
prosperous, its prosperity ha^^ng the sm-e foundation of solid 
growth and conservative management, untouched by the dubious 
hand of mere speculation. It is one of the gi-eat roads nmning 
out of New York city, and has, almost since its organization, 
done an enormous business in three major particulars — as a 
suburl)an passenger-roud, carrying daily a vast army of com- 
muters to and from the metropolis ; as a trunk-line to the West 
for both passengers and freight; and as a coal-carrying road, 
tapping the best part of the Pennsylvania anthracite-fields, and 
being one of the chief means for conveying their product to the 
New York market. 

The executive head of such a railroad system fills an impor- 
tant place in the world of finance as well as that of transporta- 
tion, and must, to be successful, be a man of high attainments, 
wide experience, and complete mastership of affairs. Down to 
the early part of 1899 the president of the Delaware, Lackawanna 
& Western road had for many years been Samuel Sloan, 
whose name has for longer than most men can remember been 
identified with it, and has been a tower of strength in the business 
world. In February, 1899, however, Mr. Sloan retired because 
of advanced age and failing health, and was succeeded by Wil- 
liam H. Truesdale, who was already a railroad man of long and 
distinguished experience. 

Mr. Truesdale was born in the State of Ohio, about fifty years 
ago, and received a good educational preparation for the business 

343 



344 WILLIAM H. TRUESDALE 

career which was before liini. At an early age lie began railroad 
work, and devoted himself to it with the earnestness which 
betokens success. His first engagement was at Rock Island, 
Illinois; then, in 187G, at Terre Haute, Indiana ; and he won 
promotion fi-oni place to place. Previous to 1883 he was for a 
number of years assistant traffic manager of the Chicago, St. 
Paul, Minneapolis & Omaha Kailroad, one of the roads of the 
Northwestern System. In the year named he was called to the 
service of another Western road, the Minneapolis & St. Louis 
Railroad, as assistant to the president. Later he became vice- 
president and then president of that road, and, owing to its 
financial difficulties, he coupled with the last-named office that 
also of receiver. In that place he gained much valuable expe- 
rience in the economical management of railroads, of which he 
has since been able to make good use in promoting the pros- 
perity of profitable roads, as well as in rehabilitating those that 
are bankni])t. 

In June, 1894, Mr. Truesdale entered the service of the 
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad as first \nce-president 
and general manager, and there had a most successful career, 
attracting to himself and to his road the attention of the whole 
country V)y the prosperity he commanded at a time when other 
roads were largely unprofitable. He was in that place when, at 
the beginning of February, 1899, the directors of the Delaware, 
Lackawanna & Western Railroad selected him to succeed Mr. 
Sloan and invited him to become president of their road. He 
accepted the place, and began his duties therein a few weeks 
later. Since then he has greatly improved the service and gen- 
eral conditions of the road, and has abundantly vindicated the 
wisdom of the directors' choice. 




CHARLES HARRISON TWEED 



DESPITE the absence of any law of primogeniture or any 
system of hereditary dignities, pohtical or social, the claims 
of honorable descent are by no means to be ignored in this coun- 
try. To be a worthy descendant of worthy ancestors is a matter 
of legitimate personal gi-atification. To be able to number among 
one's direct ancestors some of the foremost founders of this na- 
tion is a circumstance not idly to be passed by in the record of a 
man's life. The names of Winthrop, Dudley, and Sargent, for 
example, are to be prized in the genealogical hue of any one who 
can truly claim them. 

The ancestry of Charles Harrison Tweed includes Governor 
John Winthrop of Massachusetts Bay Colony, Governor John 
Winthrop, Jr., of Connecticut, and Governor Thomas Dudley 
and Governor Joseph Dudley of Massachusetts Bay Colony, 
those families having been imited by the marriage, in 1707, 
of John Winthrop, F. R. S., grandson of Governor Winthrop of 
Connecticut, with Ann Dudley, daughter of Governor Joseph 
Dudley. The daughter of this latter couple married Epes 
Sargent, and was the mother of Colonel Paul Dudley Sargent 
of the Revolutionary army. The father of Charles Harrison 
Tweed was the Hon. Harrison Tweed, ti'easurer of the Taimton 
(Massachusetts) Locomotive ^Manufacturing Company, Repre- 
sentative and Senator in the Massachusetts Legislature, and a 
member of the Governor's Council. He married Huldah Ann 
Pond, and to them was born (hiring their temporary residence at 
Calais, Maine, on September 20, 184-1, the subject of this sketch. 

His boyhood was spent at his father's home, at Taunton, Mas- 
sachusetts, where he attended school. He was fitted for college 
at Bristol Academy, and under the private tutorship of Dr. Henry 

He entered Hai-vard in 1861, and 



B. Wheelriglit of Harvard. 



34') 



346 CHARLES HARRISON TWEED 

was graduated in 1865 at the head of his class. Then he took 
up the study of law, at fii-st under the Hon. Edmund H. Bennett, 
who was afterward dean of the Law School of Boston University, 
and then in the Harvard Law School. 

Having completed his law studies, Mr. Tweed came to New 
York, where he was admitted to practice at the bar in 18G8, and 
began work. His first engagement was in the office of Evarts, 
Southmayd & Choate. He was in its employ for a few years, 
and on January 1, 1874, became a member of that distinguished 
firm. That connection was maintained until January 1, 1883, 
when he withdrew from it to become general counsel for the 
Central Pacific Railroad Company, the Chesapeake and Ohio 
Railway Company, and associated corporations. Afterward, 
upon its organization, he became counsel for the Southern Pacific 
Company, and he is now the counsel for that company and for 
the various allied and acquu'ed corporations which compose its 
giant railway system ; for the Central Pacific Railroad Company ; 
for the Mexican Interaational Railroad Company ; for the Pacific 
Mail Steamship Comiiany ; and for various other corporations. 

The performance of the duties connected with tliese engage- 
ments is sufficient to monoi)olize the major part of any man's 
attention, even of so diligent and competent a practitioner as Mr. 
Tweed. It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that he has re- 
frained from i)artici])ation in political matters, save as a private 
citizen, and has never sought nor accepted public office. 

Mr. Tweed is a member of numerous social organizations. In 
college at Harvard he belonged to the In.stitute of 1770, the Nat- 
ural History Society, the Hasty Pudding Club, and Phi Beta 
Kappa. Afterward he was a member of the Somerset Club and 
the Eastern Yacht Club in Boston. In New York city he is a 
member of the Centmy Association, the Metropolitan, University, 
Harvard, Players', Riding, Down-Town, Corinthian Yacht, and 
Seawanhaka-Corintliian Yacht clubs. He belongs also to the 
Royal Clyde Yacht Club of Glasgow, Scotland. 

He was married, at Windsor, Vermont, on October 27, 1881, 
to Miss Helen Minerva Evarts, daughter of the Hon. WiUiam M. 
Evarts, formerly Secretary of State of the United States. They 
have four children : Helen, Harrison, Katharine Winthrop, and 
Mary Winthrop. 




^-^^LJyOu\^^il/C ^^4\^CH^i^^^y,j-Lryy\^ 



FREDERICK D. UNDERWOOD 



THE anc'csti-al liistory of Frederick D. Underwood, the presi- 
dent of the famous Erie Railroad and its allied lines, is in 
general (|uite siniilai' 1o that of many other successful business 
and professional men in the United States. It may be tersely 
but ('om])rehensively e]»itomized in three names: England, the 
early colonies, and the great West. From the first-named land 
his ancestors came, both paternal and maternal, long before the 
Revolutionary War, and they were among the founders and 
buildei's of the English colonies along the Atlantic sealioard, 
which in time grew into independent States and into a nation, 
and which pushed back the border line mitil the whole great 
West became at first their ajipanage, and then their fellow 
States. It was in the West that Mr. Underwood was born and 
educated, and Ix'gan liis business career, though he has now come 
back to the l-]ast, where his ancestors lived. 

His father's forebears settled in Virginia, and dwelt there for 
a number of generations, becoming conspicuously identified with 
the life and growth of the "Old Dominion." His mother's fam- 
ily, on the other hand, came to New England, and settled at 
Leicester, :Massachusetts, and her grandfather, William H. 
Henshaw, was a colonel of Massachusetts troops and, later, an 
adjutant-general in the Revolutionary War. Mr. Underwood's 
father was the Rev. Enoch D. Underwood, a minister of the 
Baptist Church; his mother's maiden name was Harriet Flint 
Denny. At Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, the subject of this sketch 
was born to them. 

Mr. Underwood's early life was spent in a manner well calcu- 
lated to de\elop and to discipline into high efficiency his natu- 



348 FKEDEBICK D. UNDERWOOD 

ral gifts of mind and body. His first school education was ac- 
quired in the public schools of his native place. Later, he com- 
pleted his academic training at a Baptist institution of higher 
learning in Wisconsin, then known as Wayland University. 
His vacations were chiefly given to hard work, and he was early 
habituated to physical exertion and fainiliai-ized with the prac- 
tical side of life, its duties and responsibilities. After leaving 
school he was emj^loyed in a grain-elevator. 

It was with such instruction, training, and experience of busi- 
ness life that he finally entered the occupation with which he 
has now for many years been conspicuoxisly identified, and in 
which he has attained exceptional success— a calling second to 
none in importance in the business world, and surpassing most 
others in its exacting and strenuous requirements. 

His fii'st railroad employment was in the service of the Chi- 
cago, ^Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad Company. He l)egan at 
the beginning, as his first work was done in the capacity of a 
switchman in a station-yard. From that place he was in time 
advanced to a clerkship. Thereafter, his career was a steady 
pi'ogress. He was a brakcman and a conductor, and in time be- 
came a division superintendent, and in that capacity completed 
a term of eighteen years from his entry into the company's 
service. 

During his term of service with the Chicago, !Milwa\dvee & 
St. Paul Kaihvay, Mr. Underwood was elected general su])er- 
intendcnt of the Minneai)(>lis, St. I*aul & Sault Ste. Marie Hail- 
way. At that time the latter was a projected road. Mr. Under- 
wood liad charge of its construction and operation. Upon its 
being completed and opened for traffic, he was made its gen- 
eral manager, in charge of all its lousiness affairs. He con- 
tinued with that company for about fourteen years, and in 1899 
was called from it to become the general manager of tlie Balti- 
more & Ohio Railroad, and later its second A'ice-president. 

In April, 1901, ]\Ir. Underwood was elected ])i'esident of the 
Erie Railroad and its allied lines, the New York, Susquehanna 
& Western Railroad, the Chicago & Erie Railroad, and the 
Pennsylvania and Hillside Coal Companies. The Erie road is 
famous in American raili-oad history as one of the earliest of 
the great trunk lines. It lias had a singularly checkered career, 



FKEDERICK D. UNDERWOOD 349 

for man}' years figuring more tlian almost any other in Wall 
Street speculations, and in litigations. It still holds a foremost 
rank as a great passenger and freight trimk line between New 
York and the West. 

Political life has no attractions for Mr. Underwood, who finds 
in l)usiness activity satisfactory scojje for his energies. He is 
a member of a nmnl)er of loading social organizations in various 
cities, including the Metropolitan, Lawyers, City, Midday, New 
York Yacht, and New York Athletic clubs, and the Chamber 
of Conunerce of New York ; the Chicago Club of Chicago ; the 
Union Club of Cleveland; the Duquesne Club of Pittsburg; and 
the Baltimore Yacht Club of Baltimore. 




FREDERIC WTELIAM ITIIAM 



rilHE first of the Upliam family in America was John Upham, 
J. who came over from England in the Hull Colony in 1G30, 
and settled at Maiden, Massachusetts. His son, Lieutenant 
Phineas Upham, was an officer of Massachusetts troops in King 
Philip's War, and was killed in the Great Swamp fight. In a 
later generation Jonathan Upham, of the same line, was a sol- 
dier of the Revohition, and was present at the suiTender of Lord 
Cornwallis. Later still came Calvin H. Upham, who was bom 
at Westminster, Massachusetts, was engaged in general mer- 
chandising in Wisconsin before and after the Civil War, and in 
the latter was a captain and commissary of United States 
Volunteers, in the Department of the Gulf. He married Miss 
Amanda E. Gibbs, and to them was born the subject of this 
sketch. 

Frederic William LTpham was born at Racine, Wisconsin, on 
January 29, LSGl. lie received in the local schools a good pri- 
mary and secondary education, and was sent to Ripon College, 
Ripon, Wisconsin, where he pursued an advanced course of 
study, but did not complete it nor graduate. Leaving college in 
1S80, be entered at once upon a business career, in the emj^loy of 
the Upham Manufacturing Company, at Marshfield, Wisconsin. 
This was an iniportant lumber concern, and of it Mr. Upham's 
uncle. Major William H. Upham, who was Governor of Wiscon- 
sin from 189o to 1897, was president. Mr. Upham remained 
with it for fourteen years, filling various places, from that of 
inspector of lumber to that of general manager of the company. 
In the meantime, be of course acquired a thorough knowledge of 
the lumber business in all its dej^artments. 

In 1894 Mr. Upham decided to utilize bis knowledge and 

350 




I 






^ 




FREDERIC WILLIAM UPHAM 351 

experience by establisliing himself in business on his own 
account. Accordingly he removed to Chicago, and there organ- 
ized the Fred. W. Upham Lumber Company, with himself as its 
president. This organization rapidly rose to its present promi- 
nence as one of the leading concerns of the kind in that city. 
In addition to tliis connection Mv. Upham is also vice-president 
of the Crcchnau Lumber Company of Cairo, Illinois, and of the 
Wisconsin Hard-wood Export Company of Wausau, Wisconsin. 

Mr. Upham is a Republican in polities, and has taken an active 
part in the puldic affairs of that party. In 1892 he was a dele- 
gate from the Eighth Wisconsin District to the National Re- 
publican Convention at jVIinneapolis. 

In April, 1898, Mr. Upham became Alderman of the Twenty- 
second Ward of Chicago, but resigned the place on January 1, 
1899, on account of his election as president of the Cook County 
Board of Review. He was elected Alderman as the representa- 
tive of the business men's and citizens' interests against the 
professional politicians, and especially in opposition to the 
granting of too long franchises to street-railroad corporations. 

Mr. Upham is a member and director of the Union League 
Club, and a member of the Hamilton, Chicago Athletic, Ger- 
mania, Marquette, and Glen View Golf and Polo clubs of Chicago. 
He is also a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, of the Sons 
of the American Revolution, and of the military order of the 
Loyal Legion. 

He was married in 1885 at Ripon, Wisconsin, to Miss Alice C. 
Judd of that place. They have no children. 




HAl^EY JACQUES VERNER 



rpHE substantiiil old " City of Brotherly Love," Philadelphia, 
Jl which has figured so largely iu many respects in American 
history, was of old the financial center of the United States. It 
was chiefly among its business men and capitalists that the 
American Revolution was financed. It contains to-day the 
oldest American bank, the oldest United States mint, and 
numerous other financial institutions of far more than local 
importance, and it retains besides many splendid memories of 
financial leadership in colonial days and in the early days of this 
repul)lic, when the names of Morris and his colleagues were con- 
spicuous iu the coimcils of the young nation. It is at the present 
time, of course, sui-passed as a financial center by New York, as 
indeed is eveiy other city of the Western Hemisphere, and prob- 
ably every other in the whole woi'ld save only London. Yet 
the financial institutions of Philadelphia and the men who man- 
age them are of vast importance in the nation, and are worthy 
of general regard. 

Prominent among the younger and more successful financiers 
of Philadelphia is Harry Jacques Verner, son of Tliomas Verner, 
a retired business man of the same city, living on the aristocratic 
Chestnut Street. Mr. Verner was born on November 25, 1863, 
in the suburban county of Schuylkill, where the family had long 
been settled. He received a good practical education in the 
public schools, and then, having a strong inclination toward a 
business career, sought employment in the city of Philadelphia. 
His first engagement, at the age of eighteen years, was with 
the mercantile house of Young, Smyth, Field & Company, which 
he served with diligence and faithfulness. His inclinations were, 
however, more and more strong in the direction of financial pur- 

3r)2 



HARRY JACQUES VERNER 353 

suits, and ho accordingly left that tirm and entered the employ 
of various financial corporations, insurance and trust companies. 
In such occupations he was eminently successful, and his progress 
was both rapid and substantial. He became assistant secretary 
and treasurer of the United Life Insurance and Trust Com- 
pany, and held that place for a number of years. Through his 
ability and energy the business of the company was greatly 
extended and its methods radically improved. 

After a time, however, Mr. Verner decided to become his own 
employer. He accordingly resigned his place in the United Life 
Insm-ance and Trust Company, and opened an office of his own, 
under the firm-name of Verner & Co. He is at present, how- 
ever, himseK the only member of the firm. His business 
embraces the buying and selhng of investmcDt securities of the 
best class, especially railroad stocks and bonds. Of these latter 
Mr. Verner has made a special study, and upon them he ranks as 
a high authority. His offices are in the very heart of the finan- 
cial ciuarter of Philad('l])hia, at the comer of Fourth and Chest- 
nut Streets, and are themselves one of the city's most important 
centers of financial activity. Mr. Verner is, of course, a mem- 
ber of the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, and is well known in 
financial circles in New York and elsewhere as well as in his own 
city. 

Mr. Verner has held and has sought no political office or other 
public distinction, and is not conspicuously identified with any 
business enterprises excepting his own office. 

He is a member of the Union League Club of Philadelphia, 
and of the Merion Cricket Club, in the suburbs of that city, and is 
much devoted to that characteristic athletic sport of Philadelphia. 

Mr. Verner is not married. 



g>^ 




HERBERT HAROLD VREELANl) 

HERBERT HAROLD VREELAND, president of the Met- 
ropulitau ytruet Railway of New York city, may well be 
accounted the most prominent street-railway manager in the 
world. He is at the head of one of the largest corporations en- 
gaged in that business, and because of the circumstances attend- 
ing the develo])ment of that corporation and its vast system of 
roads, he has for years been the object of much public attention. 

Mr. Vreeland was bom at Glen, New York, in 1857, the son of 
the Rev. Abraham A. Vreeland, who was for twenty-five years 
pastor of the Dutch Reformed Chur(;h at Glen. He attended 
the local school in early boyhood, ))ut at the age of iifteen years 
was compelled to begin work to earn his own living. The family 
had then removed to Newark, New Jersey, and there for several 
years he w'as employed at various jobs. Then he decided to 
enter the railroad business and work his way up in it as far as 
he could. He had no experience in that business, and no influ- 
ential friends, and so had to begin at the foot of the ladder, 
wielding a shovel in a gi-avel-pit on the Long Island Raih-oad. 
His industiy and force of character won recognition, and in 
pretty rapid succession he was ])romoted to be switchman, fire- 
man, freight-brakeman, conductor, and finally superintendent 
of the floating equipmeut of the Long Island Railroad. This 
rapid advancement made him an object of envy and of antag- 
onisms, and presently, in a partial reorganization of the staff of 
that road, he lost his place altogether and had to seek employ- 
ment anew elsewhere. 

His next engagement was that of a brakeman on the New 
York & Northern Railroad, and there his former experience 
was repeated. He was successively promoted to be a conductor 



HERBEKT HAROLD VREELAND 355 

and then general manager. But his connection with the New 
York & Northern Railroad also brought him into personal 
contact with William C. Whitney, who was then Secretary of 
the Navy and also a large stockholder of the New York & 
Northern, and one of the chief owners of the sm-face railroads of 
New York city. It was Mr. Whitney's plan to consolidate into 
one gigantic corporation all the street-raih-oads of New York, 
under the presidency of an expert and practical railroad man! 
His observations of Mr. Vreeland, during tiie latter's engagement 
with the New York & Northei-n Railroad, convinced Mr. Whit- 
ney that he was the best obtainable man for the head of the 
Metropolitan Street Railway Company. Accordingly, at a meet- 
ing of the board of directors of the latter company in 1895, Mr. 
Whitney nominated Mr. Vreeland for the presidency, and Mr. 
Vreeland was at once unanimously elected and was asked to 
assume charge of the corporation at once. This was doue with- 
out Mr. Vreeland's pnnious knowledge of Mr. Whitney's inten- 
tion, and was a great surprise to him. 

In a short time, however, Mr. Vreeland amply justified Mr. 
Whitney's choice. He so won the confidence of all the directors 
that they unhesitatingly left solely in his hands the task of reor- 
ganizing the corporation and extending its operations. The 
result is that the present Metropohtan system, the gTeatest in 
the world, is almost entirely the product of Mr. Vreeland's cre- 
ative and organizing energy. It is composed of more than 
twenty coi"porations, all consolidated mider one management 
and operated as a single whole. The magnitude of its operations 
may be estimated from the fact that it carries more than 310,- 
000,000 passengers a year and earns (gross) more than $15,500,- 
000 in the same time. 

It was under Mr. Vreeland's control that the Metropolitan 
Company transfonned its lines from horse and cable roads into 
underground trolley roads. This stupendous task was per- 
formed with great expedition, without suspending traffic upon 
any of the lines, and at a cost of $15,500,000. The successful 
performance of it placed Mr. Vreeland as high among railroad 
consti-uctors as he already stood among operators and managers. 

Mr. Vreeland is thus an expert in both regidar steam railroad- 
ing and in electric street-raih-oading, and is equally esteemed in 



356 HERBERT HAKOT.I) VREELAND 

both branches of the profession. He has been president of the 
New York Railway Chib, and is at the present time president 
of the National Street Railroad Association. He is president 
and a dii-octor of the Motroj)olitan Street liailway Company, of 
the Bleecker Street & Fulton Ferry Railroad Company, of the 
Central Park, North & East River Railroad Company, of the 
Forty-second Street & Grrand Street Fony Railroad Company, 
of the Fulton Street Railroad Company, of the Thirty-fourth 
Street Crosst()\vn Railroad Company, of the Twenty-third Street 
Railroad Company, and of the Lont; Island Land Fertilizing 
Comi)any; he is also president of the Metropolitan Street Rail- 
way Employees' Association ; and he is a director of the Amer- 
ican Air Power Company, of the American Surety Company, of 
the Broadway & Seventh Avenue Railroad Company, of the 
Twenty-eighth & Twenty-ninth Streets Crosstown Railroad 
Company, and of the New York Street Railway Association. 

Mr. Vreeland is a member of various clubs and social organi- 
zations, and is a well-known figure in the social life of the 
metropolis. His home is in New York city, and he has a fine 
summer home at Brewsters, in Putnam County, New York. 




^r^^ 








vCvyk^ 



FET.IX M. WARBURG 



rflHE well-known banker and philanthropist Felix M. War- 
X burg, member of the great firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. of 
New York, comes from a line of ancestors long eminent in 
financial matters, as well as in social and other affairs, in one of 
the chief financial centers of the world. For many generations 
the Warburg family have been settled in Hamburg, Germany, and 
have been conspicuous in the business and social life of that 
city. More than a centiiry ago members of it founded the bank- 
ing house of M. M. Warburg & Co., a firm of international 
repute and importance, which is still in prosperous existence 
and activity under the direction of Moritz Warbm'g, father of 
the subject of the present sketch. 

With such antecedents, Felix M. Warburg was born in Ham- 
burg on January 14, 1871, and may be said to have been de- 
signed from his birth for a financial career. He received a 
thorough general education in the schools of his native city, 
concluding it with a course in the high school, or so-called 
Gjmmasium, an institution of collegiate rank. He was thus 
fitted to pursue some professional career, but instead he elected 
to engage in his fathtn-'s and ancestors' occupation, toward which 
his natural inclinations turned him and for which he was well 
prepared by temperament and taste. 

He went accordingly from Hamburg to that other famous 
center of banking and finance so closely identified with the 
monetary history of Europe, Frankfort-on-the-Main. In that 
ancient and affluent city, the seat of the Eothschild family and 
of other notable financiers, the young man received a thorough 
and comprehensive training in practical finance, especially in the 
business of banking. Having thus mastered the principles of 

357 



358 FELIX M. WARBURG 

his chosen business, he left his native land for the land in which 
in recent years the greatest financial operations of the world 
have been coiuhicted. 

On coming to the United States Mr. Warburg naturally settled 
in New York, the financial capital of the country, and there 
became connected with the great banking firm of Kuhn, Loeb & 
Co. This firm has for years been one of the foremost l)aiikiiig 
houses in Ncnv York, and one of the most influential in the wliole 
financial world of America. Indeed, its influence and operations 
have extended outside of this country and have made it a con- 
spicuous factor in international affairs. Of late it has been 
]tr(>minently concerned in the direction of railroad reorganiza- 
tions and the development of great industrial combinations, 
such as now so largely dominate the business world. It was 
one of the chief factors in the historic struggle over the control 
of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1901, and has participated in 
various other similar operations, and it is identified with .several 
of tlie largest C()ml)inations of capital in the world. 

This firm has its offices at No. 27 Pine Street, near the United 
States Subtreasury and in the very heai-t of the financial dis- 
trict of the American metropolis. It is composed of the follow- 
ing named members, six in number : Jacob H. Scbiff, Louis A. 
lleinslieimer, James Loeb, Felix M. Warbui'g, Otto H. Kahn, 
and ^Mortimer L. Schiff. 

Active pai-ticipation in the activities of so great a concern as 
this might well monopolize any man's time and abihties. Mr. 
Warburg has, however, been able to pay also much attention to 
philautliropic and especially to educational atl'airs. He has 
taken and continues to take a deep and efficient interest in 
many causes calculated to promote the physical, intellectual, and 
moral welfare of his fellow-men. Thus he is an active mem])er 
of tlie ]\IetropoUtan Museum of Art, of the New York Electrical 
Society, of the Numismatical Society, of the American Geo- 
graphical Society, and of other similar organizations. He is 
likewise a director of the State Charities Aid Association, of the 
Babies' Hospital of the City of New York, and of the Educa- 
tional Alliance, of which last-named he is also secretary. To 
all of these philanthropic enterprises Mr. Warburg gives practi- 
cal and efficient attention. 



FELIX M. WARBUKG 359 

Mr. Warburg has not sought Y)olitical preferment, nor been 
active in political matters beyond exercising the duties of an 
intelligent and patriotic citizen. He is a member of various 
social organizations, including the Lawyers' and Lotus clubs of 
New York, and of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of 
New York. 

Mr. Warburg was married, on March 19, 1895, to Miss Frieda 
Schiff, daughter of Jacob H. Schiff of New York, the present 
head of the firm of Kuhn, Loeb & Co. Mr. and Mrs. Warburg 
have two sons and one daughter, and make their home at No. 18 
East Seventy-second Street, New York. 




LESLIE D. WAllD 



LESLIE DODD WARD, M. D., comes of sturdy, early Amer- 
i ican stock. His ancestors were among the tirst settlers of 
Connecticut, whence they emigrated to New Jersey, and there, in 
lUGG, founded the city of Newark ; and it is recordetl that one of 
his forefathers, Josiah Ward, secured for his afi&anced bride, 
Elizabeth Swain, daughter of Captain Samuel Swain, the honor 
of being the first of the newcomers to set foot on the shore of 
Newark. 

Dr. Ward was boni at Madison, New Jersey, on July 1, 1845, 
and was sent to the Newark Academy. On his graduation in 1864, 
having prepared for Princeton College, he enlisted in the Thiily- 
seventh Regiment of New Jersey Volunteers. He was speedily 
made first sergeant of Company G, and was honorably mustered 
out of tlie service at the close of the war. He then entered the 
College of Physicians and Surgeons of New York. He was grad- 
uated in 1868, and at once hegan the practice of medicine in 
Newark, New Jersey. From the first he rose steadily in his 
profession, and after a few years was chosen to the important 
office of County Physician of Essex County, New Jersey, which 
he held imtil his gi'owing practice obliged him to resign. 

Meanwhile he had become deeply interested, with John F. 
Dryden, in the plan of introducing to America the system of 
inihistrial insurance, and made the establishment of the pioneer 
industrial insurance company of America his life-work. He was 
in it at its birth, and has been with it ever since, the next greatest 
factor in its trul}^ marvelous growth and success to Mr. Dryden 
himself. He was one of the members of the first board of direetoi's, 
and from the first was the chief medical adviser of the company. 
For years he was medical du-ector, and in 1885 was chosen vice- 

.100 




\ 



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^^«fcv 




/<M.v 




LESLIE D. WARD 361 

president, meanwhile being obliged to give up his lucrative medi- 
cal practice so as to be able to devote his whole tune to the 
Prudential. Throughout the quarter-centmy of the company's 
existence Dr. Wai-d has labored indefatigably for it, his special 
department of ^\'ork for the last ten or twelve years being the 
immediate supervision and direction of the home office and of 
the field operatives — the more than two hundred superintenden- 
cies or branch offices all over the United States, and the force of 
agents and other field workers, including medical examiners, who 
now number, all told, over fourteen thousand persons. For sev- 
eral years after his election as vice-president. Dr. Ward also con- 
tinued to fill the position of medical director. 

In addition to his work for the Prudential, Dr. Ward has 
found time to give attention to other financial and business 
enterprises. He is a director of the Fidelity Trust Company of 
Newark, New Jersey, the National Surety Company of New 
York, the New Jersey Street Railway Company, the American 
Steel and Wire Company, and of other institutions. He is a 
member of various clubs : the Union League Club of New York, 
the Lawyers' of New York, the Essex County Country, New 
Jersey (president), the Essex, the Morristown, New Jersey, the 
Morristown Golf, and others. For many years he sei-ved as staff 
surgeon of the Essex Troop, the crack cavalry corps of New 
Jersey. In 1874 he married Miss Minnie Perry of Newark, and 
has two sons, both of whom are associated with him in the busi- 
ness of the Prudential. He hves in Newark in the winter, and 
in his spacious country residence at Madison during the summer. 

In politics Dr. Ward has always been a Republican. While, 
wdth the exception of County Physician's position, he has never 
sought or held office, he has frequently been urged to run for 
offices of honor and profit, but has always declined, his sole 
ambition being to advance the interests of the great institution 
with wliich, from the foundation, he has been so prominently 
identified. He was a delegate from New Jersey to the last 
National Repubhcan Convention, held in Philadelphia in June, 
1900, and was a member of the committee appointed to notify 
President McKinlev of his nomination for a second term. 



WILLIAM DREW WASIIBIUN 



WILLIAM DREW WASHBURN, manufacturer, railroad 
builder and operator, financier, member of Congress and 
United States Senator, though ])articularly identified with the 
Northwest, is a member of a typical New England family. His 
first American ancestor was John Washburn, secretaiy of the 
Plymouth colony in England, and a member of the historic 
Miuiflower company. From John Washbm-n was descended 
Israel Washburn of Raynham, Massachusetts, who married 
Martha Benjamin — tii.- fathers of both having been soldiers in 
the Revolutionary War. This couple removed to Livermore, 
Maine, and were the parents of seven sons, every one of whom 
attained distinction in public life. One was Secretary of State 
of the United States, one a United States Senator, two of them 
Govei-nors of States, four of them Representatives in Congress, 
one a major-general in the army, one a captain in the navy, two 
of them foreign Ministers of the United States, two members of 
State Legislatures, and one a Surveyor-general. Three of them 
were Representatives in Congress at the same time, from three 
different States — a fact unique in history. 

William Drew Washburn, the youngest of these seven sons, 
was bom at Livermore, Maine, on January 14, 1831. His edu- 
cation was begun in the district school, one of his teachers being 
Timothy O. Howe, afterward United States Senator and Post- 
master-general, and another Leonard Swett, the well-known 
Chicago lawyer. Farm-work in sunmier and district school in 
winter filled up early years. In 1850 he entered Bowdoin Col- 
lege, and was graduated in 1854, aftcn- which he studied law. 

He w^ent to :\Iiunesota in 1857, and on May 1 of that year 
reached ^Minneapolis, with which place he has since been so 

3«3 




^ 



;/-5^?<^f <^. ■ 



Co^ J>7fcr~<^ ^l^co-rti 



WILLIAM DREW WASHBURN 363 

prominently identified. It was then a straggling frontier town, 
in which he practised law for two years with such success as 
conditions in such a place made possible. Then, perceiving the 
vast opportunities for manufacturing afforded by the natural 
water-power of St. Anthony's Falls, he became interested in 
business projects. 

For forty-five years he has been connected with the Minneapolis 
Mill Comi)any, as agent, stockholder, and director. He also built 
the Lincoln Sawmill at the falls,, and operated it successfully 
for many years. In 1872 he built a large lumber-mill at Anoka, 
Minnesota, near the sources of timber-supply. The flour in- 
dustry was at that time second only to the lumber industry at 
Minneapolis, and Mr. Washburn gave to it much of his atten- 
tion. For many years he was one of the chief owners of the 
great Washburn & Crosby Flouring Mills, and afterward became 
similarly interested in the PiUsbury- Washburn Mills, a gigantic 
estal)lislimt'nt with a daily capacity of 25,000 barrels of flour. 

Mr. Washburn was also actively interested in the railroad en- 
terprises which so largely contributed to the growth of Minne- 
apolis into a large and flourishing city. He was the prime 
movei", in 1800, in the formation of the company which built 
the Minneapolis & St. Louis Railroad, and was for years its 
president. Tliis road gave th(! city an additional outlet to the 
East and South. Next Mr. Washburn planned railroad connec- 
tion with the Great Lakes, and by his energy and enthusiasm 
effected the construction of the Sault Ste. Marie Railroad, which 
was completed in 1888. A third great railroad was finally 
planned, to connect Minneapolis with the grain-fields of Min- 
nesota and Dakota, and Mr. Washburn carried his scheme to 
completion in the Minneapolis & Pacific Railroad, running to 
Boynton, Dakota. 

In addition to these and other business activities, Mr. Wash- 
burn found time to participate actively in political affairs. He 
was from the first an ardent Republican, and when Minnesota 
was admitted to the Union in 1858 he was a member of its first 
Legislature. For tlic four years 1861-65 he was Surveyor-gen- 
eral of the State, under appointment by President Lincoln, and 
directed the surveying of a large part of the State. He was 
again sent to the Legislature in 1871, and in 1878, 1880, and 



3G4 WILLIAM DREW WASHBURN 

1882 was elected a Representative in Congress. Finally, in 
1889, he was elected to the United States Senate for a full term 
of six years. There he served on the important committees on 
Commerce, Post-office and Post Roads, and Agriculture, as well 
as various others, and proved himself one of the most earnest la- 
borers in this branch of the national Legislature. He has been 
several times suggested by his friends as a candidate for the 
governorship of Minnesota, and in 1900 was the choice of the 
delegation from that State at the National Republican Conven- 
tion for the Vice-Presidential nomination. 

Mr. Washburn was married, on April 19, 1859, to Miss Lizzie 
Muzzy, daughter of the lion. Franklin Muzzy of Bangor, Maine, 
president of the State Senate of Maine. He is a member of 
the Universalist Church, and for many years was superintendent 
of the Sunday-school, and is now the president of the Univer- 
salist General or National Convention. He has been a generous 
benefactor of many religious and philanthropic enterprises, and 
as an I'Xteusive employer of labor has commanded the loyalty 
and regai'd of his workmen. 





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y 



J 



JAMES MONTAl DEYERT WATERBURY 

AMES MONTAUDEVERT WATERBURY, who for years 
has been conspicuous in business, society, and sports, comes 
from sterhni? New England Puritan stock. The first of his 
family in this country was John Waterbiuy, who came from 
England in 1G31 and settled at Watertown, Massachusetts, 
whence he removed, in 164G, to Stamford, Connecticut, then 
almost on the border-line between the English and Dutch colo- 
nies. John Waterbury died in 1658, leaving descendants who 
became leaders in colonial affau's, and who may have given the 
family name to one of the most prosperous and enterprising 
cities in Connecticut. One member of the family. General 
Waterbury, served with distinction in the Revolution, and was 
a member of Washington's staff. A descendant of General 
Waterbury, by name Lawrence Waterbury, was one of the 
foremost merchants of his day in New York, and, with his 
brother James M. Waterbury, founded, in 1844, the New York 
Yacht Club, the foremost organization of its kind m America if 
not in the world. He was one of the nine yacht owners who 
incorporated that chil), and was for many years one of the tore- 
most yachtsmen of America. Lawi-ence Waterbury man-ied 
Caroline A. Cleveland, a daughter of Palmer Cleveland one of 
the leading lawyers of Connecticut, whose wife was Catherine 
Livingston, a member of the eminent New York family of that 

""Th'; subject of this sketch, James Montaudevert Waterbury, is 
the onlv son of Lawrence and Carohne Antoinette Waterbury 
He was^ bom in New York city in 1851, and was educated at 
Columbia College, from which he was gj-duatecl in the cla^s o 
1873. Upon leaving college, he entered, m 1874, his tathers 

363 



366 JAMES MONTAUDEVERT WATERBURY 

business office. In a sliort time he was made a member of the 
firm, and upon his father's death became the head of the com- 
pany. Possessing business abilities of a high order, he has 
conducted his various enterprises with great and increasing 
success, and has been for years a prominent figure in the manu- 
facturing, mercantile, and social worlds. He is at the present 
time president of the Waterbury Rope Company, of the New 
York Steel & Wire Company, and of the American Type Bar 
& Machine Company. 

Mr. Waterbury has taken no active part in political affairs 
beyond that of a private citizen. He has long been a prominent 
figui-e in the club world, a member of the Union, Metropolitan, 
Knickerbocker, and New York Yacht clubs of New York, the 
Down-Town Association, and the Country Club of Westchester 
County, of which he was the founder and first president, and 
others. He has been an officer of many of these organizations, 
and has especially promoted the prosperity of the Westchester 
County Country Club, the house of which is near his suburban 
seat at Westchester, New York. 

Mr. Waterbury was married, in 1874, to Miss Kate Anthony 
Furinan of New York, who has borne him eiglit children, and 
who has shared with him in making their home a notable center 
of social life. Mr. Waterbury 's sons inherit their father's and 
their grandfather's taste for manly out-of-door sports, and have 
distinguished tlicmselves especially upon the polo-field. 

As already stated, Mr. Waterbury was the only son of his 
parents. He has three sisters, who are now Mrs. John S. Ellis, 
Mrs. Frank C. Winthrop, and Mrs. Pierrepont Edwards. 




WILLIAM SEWARD WEBB 



DK. WILLIAM SEWARD WEBB comes of an old New 
England family of English origin, which gave to the Amer- 
ican army in the Revolution that sterhng patriot and close 
friend of Washington's, General Samuel Blachley Webb of 
Connecticut. In the last generation the family was represented 
by James Watson Webb, the distinguished editor of the 
" Courier and Enquirer " of New York, one of the foremost Amer- 
ican newspapers of the middle of the last century. James 
Watson Webb declined an appointment as United States Minister 
to Austria and Turkey, but later accepted a similar appointment 
to Brazil, and in that capacity did valuable work. He was 
man'iod to Laura Virginia Cram, daughter of Jacob L. Cram, one 
of the foremost New York merchants of those days. 

The eldest son of James Watson Webb and Lam-a V. Webb is 
William Seward Webb, who was born in New York city on 
January 31, 1851. At first he was placed under the instruction 
of private tutors. Then for five years he was in Colonel Church- 
ill's Military School at Sing Sing, New York. Two years in 
Columbia College followed, after which he went abroad to study 
medicine. His studies were pursued in the great medical schools 
of Vienna, Paris, and Berlin. Retiu-ning home, he took the regu- 
lar two years' course in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, 
and was graduated with the degree of M. D. in 1875. He then 
entered St. Luke's Hospital and i-emained there for two years, 
after which he began the general practice of his profession in 
New York. 

Dr. Webb soon found, however, the medical profession less to 
his liking than the more strenuous life of the business and finan- 
cial woi-ld. Accordingly he rehnquished his practice and in 
company with one of his brothers founded the Wall Street stock- 



367 



368 WILLIAM SEWARD WEBB 

broking firm of W. S. Webb & Co. In that biisiness he pros- 
pered, and be was ah'eady a conspicuous figure in the New York 
Stock Exchange when, in 1883, at the request of the late Wilham 
H. Vanderbilt, whose daughter he had married two years before, 
he retired from Wall Street and became president of the WagncM- 
Palace Car Company. Thenceforward until the end of the year 
1899 Dr. Webb's name was inseparably identified with that cor- 
poration, the affairs of which he managed with gi-eat energy and 
enterprise. 

Thus introduced into the railroad world. Dr. Webb found 
other congenial occupations for his energetic mind. He built 
the Adirondack & St. Lawrence Railroad, 233 miles long. He is 
chairman of the Rutland Railroad Company, which has lately 
consolidated into its system the Chatham & Lebanon Valley 
Springs Railroad, the Bennington & Rutland Railroad, the 
Ogdensburg & Lake Champhdn Railroad, the Rutland Canadian 
Railroad, and part of the Quebec Southera Railroad, comprising 
in all about 450 miles of road. He is a director of the Lake 
Shore & Michigan Southern Railway Company, the Carthage & 
Adirondack Railway Company, and president of the Mohawk & 
Malone Railway Company, both of which latter companies are 
New York Central leased lines. He is president of the Adiron- 
dack & St. Lawrence Railway Company, and a director in the 
South Shore and Quebec Southern railway companies, in Can- 
ada. He is a director in the Fitchburg Railroad Company, the 
Bennington & Rutland Railroad Company, the Central Vermont 
Raih'oad Company, the Findlay, Fort Wayne & Western Rail- 
road Company, and other transportation lines, including the lead- 
ing Vanderbilt roads. He is a director of the Pullman Com pan j'-, 
of the Lincoln Safe Deposit Compajiy, of the Continental Trust 
Company, of the Colonial Trust Company, of the American Loan 
& Trust Company, and of the Burhngton Trust Company, and he 
is president and director of various other New York corporations. 

Dr. Webb has been aide-de-camp on the staffs of three succes- 
sive Governors of the State of Vermont, with the rank of colonel. 
He is a member of the Society of the Sons of the American 
Revolution, and was for three terms its president-general, there- 
after declining reelection. He was for many years secretary and 
treasurer of the American Hacknev Horse Societv, of which he 



WILLIAM SEWARD WEBB 369 

was one of the founders. He is a member of most of the leading 
clubs in New York, including the Union League, University, 
Metropolitan, Republican, Church, Players, Country, Jockey, 
Racquet, Coaching, Riding, New York Yacht, Tuxedo, West- 
minster Kennel, and Dowm-Town. He is also a member of the 
Society of Colonial Wars. He is a director of the Manhattan 
Eye and Ear Hospital in New York, and a vestryman in St. 
Thomas's Church, New York, and in Trinity Church, Shelburne, 
Vermont. He is a director of the sanitarium for pulmonary 
patients on Saranac Lake, New York, gi\ang one himdred acres 
of land for the purpose, and one of the founders of Paul Smith's 
Station in the Adirondacks, at which point St. Mary's Sanitarium 
is located. He has a vast park and game preserve in the Adiron- 
dacks, but his favorite home is at Shelburne Farms, near Bur- 
lington, Vermont, on the edge of Lake Champlain. There he 
has sometijing more than four thousand acres, a noble mansion, 
and extensive stables for his famous horses. It is accounted one 
of the finest country estates in America, and well deserves the 
distinction. 

His early educational pursuits imbued Dr. Webb with a taste 
for the best literature, and with admirable literary ability of his 
own. One of his first writings was a volume on California and 
Alaska, which was pubhshed in 1891. More recently he has 
edited for publication the papers of his father, James Watson 
Webb, and three volumes of the papers of his grandfather. 
General Samuel Blachley Webb, the latter work being a singu- 
larly interesting and valuable contribution to the history of the 
American Revolution. 

In 1899 Dr. Webb presented a memorial service medal to every 
member of Company M of the First Vermont Regiment of Vol- 
unteers in the Spanish war. At the end of the same year, upon 
his retirement from the presid(mcy of the Wagner Palace Car 
Company, the four thousand employees of that corporation united 
in giving to him a superb silver loving-cup of massive proportions. 

Dr. Webb was married, in 1881, to Miss Ehza Osgood Vander- 
bilt, daughter of William H. Vanderbilt. His four children are 
Fredeiica Vanderbilt, James Watson, William Seward, Jr., and 
Vanderbilt. Dr. Webb and his family have long been among 
the foremost leaders of the best social hfe in New York. 



HENRI P. W ERTHELM 



A NATURAL geiiius for certain undertakiufijs appears to 
reside in certain races and nationalities. There are war- 
rior races and industrial races. Some take to commerce and 
navigation, some to agriculture, some to manufactures, some to 
literatui'e and art, and some to finance. Thus for centuries a 
large proportion of the financial operations of Europe, in both 
ordinary business and in public and governmental affairs, has 
been conducted by the Germans and Dutch, and such cities as 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, Hamburg, and Amsterdam have been 
the money centers of the Continent. In those cities well-known 
families have for generations been identified with banking, and 
have established veritable dynasties of finance, scarcely less 
powerful than the dynasties which have occupied thrones of 
state. 

To such a family of financiers the subject of the present 
sketch belongs. The Wertheim family has long been estab- 
lished in Amsterdam, and in that city the father of Henri P. 
Wertheim was a prominent and successful banker. The .same 
business has in this generation been established with equal 
success in the financial center of the American continent. 

Henri P. Wertheim was born in tlie Dutch metropolis of 
Amsterdam on October 2, 1872. He received an excellent educa- 
tion in the schools of his native country, with a \iew to fitting 
him, not for professional life, but for the pursuit of the business 
in which his father was successfully engaged and for which 
he himself early displayed a marked aptitude and inclination. 
He decided, however, not to engage in business in Holland, but 
at an early age came to the United States, where it was evident 
that gTcat financial opportunities were opening. He estabUshed 



:t70 





i-yi>tvA 



-C-f-A^-V-V^ 



HENRI P. WERTHEIM 371 

himself in the city of New York, and quickly achieved note- 
worthy success. At the age of less than twenty-five years, on 
January 1, 1897, he became the head of the important firm 
Probst, Wetzlar & Co., bankers and brokers, and members of 
the New York Stock Exchange, at No. 27 WilHam Street, New 
York. 

In addition to his interest in thio firm, Mr. Wertheim is a 
director of the Mexican National Railroad Company. 

Mr. Wertheim has become a citizen of the United States, and 
takes the interest of an intelligent and loyal citizen in public 
affairs ; but he has held no public office and has sought no politi- 
cal preferment. He is a member of several prominent social 
organizations, including the Manhattan, City, and Lawyers' 
clubs, and of the Chamber of Commerce of New York. 

Mr. Wertheim was nuirried in New Yoi-k to Miss Clara Wolff, 
daughter of the late Abraham Wolff, a member of the well- 
known banking firm of Kulm, Loeb & Co. of New York. 




STAXFOED WHITE 



s 



STANFORD WHITE, the cuiitKnt ^Vineiieau areliitect, is a 
ineniber of one of the oldest famihes ou this continent. His 
first American progenitor was John White, who came over on 
the ship Lion in 1632 and settled at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 
of which town he was a selectman. Fom* years later he was 
one of tlie founders of Hartford, Connecticut. Later he removed 
to HaiUey, Massachusetts, and was its representative in the 
General Court. His son Nathaniel White remained in Connec- 
ticut, and represented Middletown in the General Court of that 
colony. In a later generation the Rev. Calvin White was rector 
of the Protestant Episcopal church at Derl)y, Connecticut. His 
son Richard Mansfield White became a leading shipping mer- 
chant of New York. The next generation produced Richard 
Grant White, who was one of the most accomplished American 
critics, essayists, and men of letters of his day. He won distinc- 
tion as a jouruahst, as a musical critic, as an authority on the Eng- 
lish language, and as a Shaksperian scholar and commentator. 
The worthy son of Richard Grant White is Stanford White. 
He was born in New York on November 0, 1853, and received a 
cai-eful education under tutors and in private .schools. In 18S1 
he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts from New 
York Universit}', which had been his father's alma mater. He 
chose for himself the profession of an architect, and, with that end 
in view, studied under II. H. Richard.son, and was that great 
architect's chief assistant in the construction of his masterpiece 
— Trinity Cliurch in Boston. From 1878 to 1881 Mr. White 
traveled and studied in Europe, and on his return to New York 
in the latter year he formed the now famous partnership of 
McKim, Mead & White. 

372 




J. 6^L. fc^t. 



STANFOKT) WHITE 373 

A large proportion of the best architecture in New York, and 
indeed in the country generally, in the last twenty years, is to be 
credited to Mr. White, either personally or in collaboration. 
The superb new structures of New York University which 
crown University Heights, including the HaU of Fame for Great 
Americans, are his work, and are accounted by many to be his 
masterpiece thus far. The Madison Square Garden, the Metro- 
politan Clul) building, the building of the Century Association, 
the Washington Arch, and the " Villard House " on Madison 
Avenue, now the city home of Whitelaw Reid, and the country 
residences of Clarence H. Mackay at Roslyn and Mrs. Hermann 
Oelrichs at Newport are other examples of his work. He has 
designed many pedestals for sculpture by Augustus St.-Gaudeus, 
including the Fan-agut Statue in Madison Square, New York, 
the Chapin Statue at Springfield, Massachusetts, the Adams 
tomb at Washington, and the Lincoln and Logan statues at 
Chicago. As a designer of interior decorations he has won 
much prominence and success, among such works being the 
adornments of the Metropolitan Club and the Players Club, and 
of the Church of the Ascension and the Church of the Paulist 
Fathers, in New York, the interior of the city residences of the 
Hon. William C. Whitney, Charles T. Barney, and Henry W. 
Poor. 

Mr. White was married, in 1884, to Miss Bessie Smith, a mem- 
ber of the famous old Smith family of Smithtown, Long Island. 
She has borne him one son, Lawrence Grant White. Mr. White 
is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and of 
many prominent social organizations, including the Union, 
Knickerbocker, University, Metropohtan, Players, and Meadow- 
brook Hunt clubs, and the Century Association. Mr. and Mrs. 
White have a city home in the fine old region of Gramercy 
Park, and a summer home at St. James, Long Island, both of 
wdiich are centers of the best social life and of cultivated 
lospitality. 



WILMAM COLLINS WHITNEY 



TT/'ILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY, eminent as a lawyer, 
T T political leader, statesman, financier, social leader, and 
patron of art and of the turf, comes of fine old New En^^^land stock. 
His earliest American ancestors, John and Elinor Wliitney, and 
their son Richard, came over from England with Sir Kichard 
Saltonstall in 1635, and settled in Massacdiusetts. To Richard 
Whitney was bom a son, also named Richard, to whom was 
bom a son who became known in history as (u'neral Josiah 
Whitney of Revolutionary times. To Ocneral Whitney and his 
wife Sarah Farr was born a son, Josiah Whitney, who man-ied 
Anna Scollay. A sou of the latter couple, Stephen Whitney, 
was eminent in Massachusetts politics, and had a son. General 
James Scollay Whitney, who was also eminent in both the 
military and civil servii-es 

The sul)jt'ct of the present sketch is a son of General James 
Scollay Whitney. He was born at Conway, Massachusetts, in 
1839, and was carefully educated at Williston Academy, East- 
hampton, Massachusetts, and at Yale College. He was gra<luated 
at Yale in the class of 18G3. One of liis classmates was William 
G. Sumner, the well-known writer and political economist, with 
whom Mr. Whitney divided the first pi-ize for English essays. 
From Yale he went to Harvard, entered the Law School there, 
and was graduated in 1865. From Harvard he came to New York, 
pursued a course of study in the office of Abraham R. Lawrence, 
aftei'ward a justice of tlie Supreme Court of New York, and was 
soon admitted to practice at the bar. 

Mr. Lawrence was at that time concerned chiefly with cor- 
poration law, and 'Mr. Wliitney was naturally drawn toward that 
important and i)rofitable department of professional work. 



374 




1^ul^4. /t^/wt 




WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY 375 

Therein he soon built up a large practice. He was for several 
years counsel for and a director of the Continental Life Insur- 
ance Compan3\ He was also counsel for the New Jersey- 
Mutual Life Insurance Company, which became bankrupt. 
Mr. Whitney was counsel for the Metropohtan Steamship 
Company, the Tredegar Company of Richmond, Virginia, and 
other corporations. For more than two years he was trustee 
under the mortgage of the Dayton & Union Railroad of 
Ohio, and had the sole management of the road. He was 
counsel for the principal holders of the receiver's certificates 
issued by the receiver of the New York & Oswego Midland 
Railroad, and was also for several years counsel for the stock- 
holders of the St. Louis, Alton & Terre Haute Railroad. One 
of the best-known cases in which he has been concerned was the 
famous libel suit of Charles Reade, the Enghsh novelist, against 
the proprietors of the "Round Table" of this city for a severe 
criticism of " Griffith Gaunt." Mr. Whitney was counsel for the 
defense, and, after a week's trial, won his case. 

Mr. Wliitney made his entrance into political hfe with Abra- 
ham R. Lawrence during the campaign against the Tweed Ring 
in 1870 and ISTl. In the latter year he was associated with 
Governor Tilden, Mayor Wickham, and others in the campaign 
when the Apollo Hall organization, of which Mayor Wickham 
was the head, aided in the overthrow of the Tweed Ring. In 
1872 Mr. Whitney ran for District Attorney on the Apollo Hall 
ticket, but was defeated. He afterward joined the Tammany 
Hall organization, but remained in close relations with Mr. Til- 
den. In 1875 ho was appointed by Mayor Wickham Corporation 
Counsel, to succeed E. Delafield Smith, removed. He was twice 
reappointed to the position, resigning the office in November, 
1882. He was conspicuous in organizing the Young Men's 
Democratic Club. After Tammany's opposition to Tilden, Mr. 
Whitney, with others, organized the Irving Hall Democracy. 
When that fell into disrepute he assisted in organizing the 
County Democracy. 

Mr. Whitney was appointed Secretary of the Navy by Presi- 
dent Cleveland in 1885, and served during that administration of 
four years with distinguished success, being intimately identified 
with the creation of the present navy. Upon the expiration of 



376 WILLIAM COLLINS WHITNEY 

his term he retired to private life, resohitely declining all offers 
of political preferment. Down to the present time, however, he 
has remained one of the most forceful and influential ligures in 
the Democratic party in the United States. 

Instead of returning to his legal practice, Mr. Whitney in 1889 
interested himself in financial and general business affairs, espe- 
cially in connection with the great Metropolitan Street Railway 
system of New York. He is a director or trustee of numerous 
banks, trust companies, and other corporations. He is a mem- 
ber of most of the leading clubs of New York city and of many in 
other cities. He and his family have long enjoyed conspicuous 
social leadership in New Y^ork, Washington, and elsewhere, and 
his mansion on Fifth Avenue is famed as oue of the most splen- 
did residences in New York. It is especially rich in works of 
art, Mr. Whitney having been for years a generous but discrimi- 
nating purchaser of paintings, both old and new. 

In the fall of 1897 Mr. Whitney became interested in the turf, 
and in the follo\\ing year he appeared in the sporting world as 
the owner of a tine racing-stable. Since that time he has become 
the owner of some of the most notable horses in the world, such 
as Jean Beraud, Ballyhoo Bey, and Hamburg, and has won in- 
numerable races in America, including some of the greatest on 
the turf, and also, in 19U1, the classic English Derby, the last- 
named being won with the horse Volodyovski. 

Mr. Whitney was married, in 1869, to Flora PajTie, daughter of 
Henry B. Paj-ne, United States Senator from Ohio. She died in 
1892, leaving him four children. These are Harry Pajme Whit- 
ney, who married Clertrude Vanderbilt, daughter of Cornelius 
Vanderbilt ; Pauline Wliitney, who married Almeric Hugh Paget 
of England; Payne Whitney, who married Helen Hay, daughter 
of John Hay, Secretary of State of the United States ; and Doro- 
thy WhitTiey. Mr. Wliitney was married again, in 1S96, to 
Edith S. May Randolph of East Com-t, Wiltshire, England, wlio 
died in May, 1899, in consequence of injuries received in a 
hunting-field accident more than a year before. 



CASSIUS MILTON WICKER 



CASSIUS MILTON WICKER, the well-known railroad 
manager and president, is of New England origin. Three 
of his ancestors were among the Mayflower pilgrims— Mary 
Chilton, Elder Brewster, and William Latham. The Wickers, 
a Scotch-Irish Pi'otestant family, were among the early colo- 
nists of Massachusetts, and did not there escape the religious in- 
tolerance from which they had suffered in the Old World. Wil- 
liam Wicker was driven from Roxbury, Massachusetts, in 1720 
by an intolerant council, settled at Leicester, Massachusetts, and 
remained tlnn-e for the remainder of his life. His son, Jacob 
Wicker, married Abial Washburn, a sister of Colonel Seth 
Washbura, who was a member of Oeneral Washington's staff 
during the Revolution. A grandson of Jacob Wicker was Judge 
Cynis Wasli])urn Wicker, one of the leading men of Vermont 
in the middle of the last century. Judge Wicker married Maria 
Delight Ilalladay, and to them the subject of this sketch was 
born, at North Ferrisburgh, Addison County, Vermont, on 
August 25, 1846. 

The "little red school-house" of his native village and the 
academies at Williston and Middlebury, Vermont, were the 
scenes of Mr. Wicker's education, so far as text-books and 
classes were concerned. His practical business education was 
begim and well carried forward in his father's country "general 
store." Here he had all things to do, from selling needles and 
pins to making out mortgages and wills. He also served as 
bookkeeper for the village blacksmith. At twenty-one years of 
age he entered a broader field, that of railroading. He became 
an agent of the Star Union Line at East St. Louis. For the next 

377 

/ 



378 CA8SIUS MILTON WICKER 

three years lie was cashier of the People's Dispatch Fast Freight 
Line and Chinese inmiigrant agent for the North Missouri Rail- 
way. In this capacity his activities covered the vast region from 
Chicago, St. Louis, and Mcmpliis to the Pacific coast. In 1869 
he became assistant general freight agent of the North INIissouri 
Railway, and filled that place until August 1, 1871, when he be- 
came assistant general freiglit agent of the Chicago & North- 
western Railway, in which position he had charge of the settle- 
ment of claims for losses in the great Chicago fire of 1871. At 
the end of 1876 he left the Chicago & Northwestern for the Bal- 
timore & Ohio Railroad, and 1)etween that date and January, 
1880, was successively general agent, assistant-general freight 
agent, and traffic manager of its trans-Ohio lines. From 1880 
to 1883 he was in charge of iron-mines in northern Michigan, 
and then became general manager of the Central Illinois Coal 
C()nii)any's coal-mines at Springfield, Braidwood, and Tracy, 
Illinois. From the spring of 1883 to August, 1887, he was com- 
missioner of the Chicago Freight Bureau, in which ]»osition he 
had charge of the transportation interests of the wholesale mer- 
chants and manufacturers of that city, and also of those of the 
stock-yards, lumljcr-yards, and Board of Trade. 

In 1887 Mr. Wicker became vice-])resident of the Colorado 
Eastern Railway, and removed from Chicago to New York city. 
Since 1889 he has been vice-president of the Fort Worth & Rio 
Grande Railway; from November, 1893, to December, 1897, he 
was vice-]»i'esident and general manager of the Brookl_\ni, Queens 
County & Sul)url)an Railroad; and from January, 1894, to May, 
1899, he was president of the North Shore Traction Company, 
which owned all the stock of the L\Tin & Boston Railroad and 
controlling interests in otlier pro]>erties. lie is a trustee of 
the Washington Savings Bank of New York; a director and 
president of the Dillon-Griswold Wire Company; a director 
and vice-president of the Bankers' Money Order Association, 
of which he was one of the organizers ; and a special partner in 
the firm of Wicker Brothers of New York. He is also interested 
as a director or otherwise in various other financial corpora- 
tions. He has been an officer of the Vermont National Guard, 
and is a member of the Union League, Lotos, Colonial, Lawyers', 
Church, Atlantic Yacht, and St. Andrew's Golf clubs of New 



CASSIUS MILTON WICKER 379 

York, of the Union League of Chicago, and of the Metropolitan 
Museum of Art, the American Geographical Society, the Sons 
of the Revolution, and the New England Society. He is presi- 
dent of the Chicago Society of New York, and a member of the 
Society of MaijfJower Descendants and of the Order of Foim- 
ders and Defenders of America. He is a vestryman and treas- 
urer of All Angels' Protestant Episcopal Church of New York. 
He was married on Jime 5, 1872, at Lebanon, Illinois, to Miss 
Augusta Carroll French, daughter of Augustus C. French, a 
native of New Hampshire, who, as governor of Illinois, in 1851, 
approved the act of the Legislature of that State creating the 
Illinois Central Railroad. This act made the then governor of 
the State, by virtue of his office, the first ex-officio director of the 
road. Mrs. Wicker died in 1889, leaving three children, Henry 
Halladay Wicker, Lucy Southworth Wicker, and Cyrus French 
Wicker. 




ISAIAH COLE YOUNG 

rpHE Young family under present consideration came from 
X England about 1G3G and settled at or near Seituate, Massa- 
chusetts, th(>re engaging in agriculture. The branch of it to 
which our sul)ject belongs removed thence to Cape Cod about 
IGTO, and exchanged fanning for a seafaring life. Two gen- 
erations l)ack Noah Young was a prominent sailing-ship mas- 
ter. His son, Barna])as H. Young, born at Wellfleet, sp.-nt the 
early part of his life at sea, and tlieu settled down as a merchant 
at Weimeet. He was married in July, 1S41, to Miss Hannah 
Cole, a member of a family that had come from Scotland in 
1700, she herself being a native of Massachusetts. 

Isaiah Cole Young, son of this couple, was l)orn at WeUtieet, 
Massachusetts, on St'ptember 29, 1S4G. His education was 
acquired in the common and high .schools of tliat town. At the 
age of only eleven years, however, he was taken to sea l>y his 
father, as cabin-boy. For sixteen years tliereafter most of his 
life was spent at sea, with not a few rough experiences. At the 
age of twenty-one he became a master, and at twenty-seven he 
retired from his seafai-ing career. 

His next occupation was that of a merchant at Wellfli-et, in 
which he was eminently successful. For twelve years he was 
manager of the Commercial AVharf at Weimeet. For nine years 
be was vice-president of the Boston Fruit Company, and thi'U, 
upon its consohdation with the United Fruit Company, he be- 
came manager of the Boston division of the corporation, which 
place he still holds. 

Mr. Young has taken an active interest in public affairs, and 
has more than once been chosen to serve his fellow-citizens in 
an official capacity. He was elected to the State Legislature of 




>ai^Ap^^ 



HM 






ISAIAH COLE YOUNG 381 

Massachusetts from the Cape Cod District in 1886, and served 
during the session of 188G-87. He was chosen County Commis- 
sioner of Barnstable County in 1889, and served in that capacity 
for the four years 1889-92. For the ten years 1889-99 he was 
one of the State Fish and Game Commissioners. 

In addition to the business and pohtical engagements ah-eady 
mentioned, he has long been vice-president of the Wellfleet 
Savings Bank, and a director of several important corporations 
in that town and in Boston, and is well known and highly 
esteemed as a leader of business affau's throughout all the east- 
em i)art of Massachusetts. 

Mr. Young is a member of the Exchange and Algonquin clubs 
of Boston, and of the New York Club of New York. 

He was married in 1872, at WeMeet, to Miss Emma Gould 
Newcomb, daughter of Warren and Nancy Dyer Newcomb of 
Wellfleet. Mr. and Mrs. Y^oung now have two daughters, whom 
they have named Ada Fulton and Mae Emery. 




WILLTA^r ZTECJLER 



WILLIAM ZIEGLER, one of the best-known business men 
and most public-spirited citizens of the American metrop- 
olis, is of German parentage and was born in Beaver County, 
Pennsylvania, on September 1, 1843. His father, Francis Ziegler, 
died in 1H4(), and in 1848 his mt)ther, Ernestine Ziegler, married 
Conrad iiraudt, a prominent citizen of Muscatine County, Iowa. 
It was at Muscatine that young Ziegler began his business 
career in the office of the local newspaper as a printer's assis- 
tant. Later he was employed in a drug-store and chemical 
works. 

In the fall of 18G2 the young man determined to adtl to liis 
education, and with that end in view went to Poughkeepsie, 
New York, and entered the Ea.stinan Business College. After 
completing his course there lie came to New York and secured 
employment in a wholesale drug and chemical house, where he 
remained for live years, from 18G3 to 1868, meantime pursuing 
a course in the College of Pharaiacy. He began business on his 
own account in 1868, establishing the Royal Chemical Company 
for the manufacture of baking powder and other articles. The 
enterprise was liighly successful, and in 1873 the tirm was in- 
corporated as the Royal Baking Powder Company. Litigation 
arose over the afifairs of this company, which was finally ended 
by Mr. Ziegler's withdrawal from it, he receiWug nearly $3,000,- 
000 for his interest in it. About 1879, after a careful study of 
the manufacture of cream of tartar abroad, he organized the 
New York Cream of Tartar Company, from which he retired in 
1886. In 1890 he purchased the Price Baking Powder Company 
of Chicago, and in the following year he also purchased the 
Tartar Chemical Company of New Jersey. He is interested in 



382 



WILLIAM ZIEGLER 383 

various other business enterprises, and is one of the largest real- 
estate owners and operators in Brooklyn and other parts of the 
metropolis and its su])urbs. 

Mr. Ziegler is gratefully remembered as the pubhc-spirited 
plaintiff in the famous taxpayers' suit to prevent the " deal " be- 
tween the Long Island Water Company and the city of Brook- 
lyn. This suit he conducted successfully at an expense of about 
$100,000 to himself, and saved nearly $1,500,000 to the people 
of BrookljTi. A similar taxpayers' suit brought by him compelled 
the Brooklyn Elevated Railroad to pay nearly $500,000 in taxes 
to the city. Another notable suit was brought by him as a 
minority stockholder of the Lake Elevated Railroad of Chicago. 
It resiilted in his securing $1,000,000 damages, and in setting a 
most important legal precedent. 

Mr. Ziegler, in the fall of 1900, organized, at his own expense, 
one of the best-equipped and most promising Arctic exploring 
expeditions ever sent to seek the North Pole, in the ships 
America, Belyica, and Frithiof. The expedition sailed from 
Dundee in June, 1901, under the command of Evelyn B. Baldwin, 
accompanied by experts in zoology, botany, geology, meteorology, 
photography, and geographical charting, with full expectations 
of achieving more than any former expedition. " It has been 
my hfelong desire," said Mr. Ziegler, " to know that the Ameri- 
can flag was the first to float over the North Pole. If I were 
not so old I would go thither myself. As it is, I can only supply 
the means for another to make the attempt." 

Mr. Zii'gler is a member of the Down-Town Club of New York, 
the Union League Club of Brooklyn, the New York, Larchmont, 
and Atlantic Yacht clul)s, the Union League Club of Chicago, 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art, tlie American Geographical 
Society, the Arctic Club of New York, and the Caughnawaga 
Hunting and Fishing Club of Quebec. He is a Mason and a 
Knight Templar. He was married, in August, 1886, to Mrs. 
E. M. Gamble of New York. 



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